experiment 4 report - biodiesel production part 1 group #4

8/18/2019 Experiment 4 Report - Biodiesel Production Part 1 Group #4

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Biodiesel Production

Part 1: Oil Extraction

Energy Practice Course SS 2016

Submitted By:

Indrajeet Desai Matriculation #: 2269333

Iqbal Meskinzada Matriculation #: 2267570

Supervisor:


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Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) |Biodiesel production experiment 2

Table of ontents

1.

Summary ………………………………………………………………………..3

2.

Introduction and scope of work ………………………………………………...33. Theory…………………………………………………………………………...4

4. Feedstocks and chemicals……………………………………………………….6

5.

Experimental set-up……………………………………………………………..6

6. Execution of the experiment ……………………………………………………6

7. Results…………………………………………………………………………...7

8. Discussion……………………………………………………………………….8

9. References


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1. Summary

Rapeseed or rapeseed oil is the most common feedstock for producing biodiesel. The purpose of

this experiment is to analyse and discuss the process of producing rapeseed oil from raw seedsthrough the process of pressing which is done mechanically. The outcome is compared to the

theoretical values. The amount of oil (28%) extracted from rapeseeds is satisfactory despite some

minor losses occurred during the experiment.

2. Introduction and scope of work

The experiment described in this text was executed in the laboratories of the Hamburg University

of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) on 12/04/2016, under the structure of the Energy Practice

laboratory course as part of the Master’s programme in Renewable Energy Systems.

This experiment is the first of two experiments, which involve the production of crude oil from

rapeseeds and subsequently the trans-esterification of it which results in the production of

biodiesel. The first part of biodiesel production is oil extraction, which is the goal of this

experiment and will thus be elaborated in this report.

Biodiesel refers to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), which are nothing but a group of esterified

vegetable oils. The vegetable oils are produced from various oil-containing crops such as

rapeseed and sunflower.

The report consists of seven major sections which mainly cover –

1. the theoretical basics required for the execution of the experiment

2.

feedstocks and chemicals that are part of the experiment

3. the experimental set-up

4.

execution of the experiment

5. obtained results

6. discussions regarding the results

7.

list of references used for the purpose of writing this report

The topic of biodiesel production is a very interesting prospect amid other renewables, as we

move away from conventional non-renewable energy sources for fulfilling the primary energy

demand of the world. Biodiesel can help to provide a secure supply of liquid transport fuels,

reduce reliance on conventional petroleum fuels and create an environment-friendly fuel for

diesel engines.

For this experiment, rapeseed was selected and converted to rape seed oil by employing the use

of a screw extruder. The resulting crude oil from the extrusion process cannot directly be used in

conventional diesel engines due to its fuel properties at this stage. The fuel properties of the

crude oil are to be adjusted by trans-esterification which will make it suitable for use in

conventional diesel engines. However, this a is part of the second experiment and therefore shall

not be emphasised here. The screw extruder used for this experiment is the Vegetable Oil Press

P500R from Anton Fries Maschinenbau GmbH.


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The experiment begins with the greasing of the various parts of the screw extruder, followed by

assembly of the extruder. The extruder is pre-heated (to 70oC) prior to its operation. The

rapeseed is then added into the feed hopper and the pressing begins. The oil and the remainder ofthe rapeseed are collected separately in containers. Upon completion of pressing, the extruder is

switched off, disassembled and then cleaned. The collected crude oil is filtered (by means of a

125µm filter paper) to separate the lee from the crude oil. This filtered crude oil will be used for

the second part of biodiesel production.

3. Theory:

Extraction of oil from rapeseed can proceed by one of the following processes: direct screw

pressing, direct solvent extraction, and pre-press solvent extraction. The pre-press solvent

extraction process is a classical system of processing rapeseed in which the seed is initiallyexpelled under pressure to release a portion of the available oil; and the residue is than solvent

extracted. This method is still used by many oil producing manufacturers, with some

modifications, such as pretreatment of rapeseeds. Pre-press solvent extraction is probably one of

the most economical processes. Figure (1) shows the flow process for oil extraction.

Figure (1): Oil extraction process from rapeseeds by method of Pre-press extraction

1. Seed cleaning: Current rapeseed cleaning equipment typically consists of three basic steps:aspiration, screen separation to remove oversized particles, and screen separation to remove

undersized particles. Most equipment can provide all three steps in a single unit.

2. Preconditioning: Preheating the whole seed prior to processing (to about 30-40(C) by indirect

heating or direct hot air contact. This process improves flaking, screw pressing capacity, cake

formation, extractability, and hexane recovery from the extracted canola flakes.

3. Flaking: In colder climates, many crushing plants use grain dryers to preheat the seed and

prevent shattering as seed enters the flaking unit. The cleaned seed is first flaked by roller mills

set for a narrow clearance to physically rupture the seed coat. The objective is to rupture as many

cell walls as possible without damaging the quality of the oil. Optimum flake thickness is0.3- 0.38 mm. Flakes thinner than 0.2 mm are very fragile while flakes thicker than 0.4 mm

result in lower oil yield.


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4. Cooking: Rapeseed flakes are heated in a stacked cooker (at about 75-85(C).

5. Screw pressing: This step is obtained to remove 60% - 70% of the oil from rapeseed flakes,

and to compress the small fragile rapeseed flakes into a more dense and durable cake to facilitategood solvent contact and percolation in the extractor.

6. Solvent extraction: Further extraction of oil seeds and press cake with hexane. After this the

hexane-saturated meal leaving the solvent extractor contains less than 1% oil.

7. Desolventizing: Removal of hexane solvent from the extracted cake.

8. Distillation: Hexane recovery from rapeseed oil.

9. Degumming: Removal of rapeseed phosphatides or gums, and free moisture, cooling of dryoil and then transfer to the refining process or into a storage.

In general, a pre-press system followed by solvent extraction may be an option when the oilseed

contains more than about 23% oil. This combination combines the best of each system: the

pressing operation removes the higher percentages of oil which are by far the easiest to squeeze

out of the solids, and the solvent extraction process is best at removing oil from about 20% down

to near ½%. In Figure 1, it is worth noting that a plant to process rapeseed with pre-pressing

followed by extraction will often reduce the oil content from about 40% to 20% in the presses

and from 20% to 0.8% in extraction, and that (after adjustments for moisture changes during the

process) the press oil produced may be roughly 25.8% of the raw seed, while the extraction oilmay be about 13.7% of the raw seed. The following flowchart depicts the biodiesel production

on industrial scale which will be explained in part 2 of the experiment.

Figure (2): Industrial biodiesel production process flowchart


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4. Feedstocks and chemicals

In this experiment 260g of rapeseed has been used as intake material. Rapeseed is the most

widely used material for producing biodiesel. The oil content of the seed ranges from 33.2 to

47.6% (8.5% moisture basis) and yields 29.5 to 57.5% protein (oil-free/defatted meal, 8.5%

moisture basis). In the next part of the experiment, physical and chemical properties of the

rapeseed oil, produced in this part, will be discussed.

5. Experimental Set up:

In this experiment rapeseed is used for oil production. After the lubrication of the parts , the

screw extruder P500R Anton Fries corporation parts needs to be carefully assembled. The

pressing cylinder will be inserted into the shaft and screwed tightly into the gadget and the crown needs

to be positioned such that it is 4mm from it is fully tight position. Adjust the heater band in to the

cylinder for the purpose of heating. The pressed oil will be leaving the cylinder frontal side

through a bunch of holes.

Before pressing, the front part of the screw extruder must be preheated through the heating band.

Therefore the heating band is switched on and the thermocouple needs to be positioned

appropriately to read temperature. At least 70 °C should be reached. It takes about 10 minutes to

reach this temperature. Meanwhile, the direction of rotation may be tested. Therefore the screw

extruder needs to be switched on briefly. A negative value should appear on the display.

Furthermore, four containers have been used for storing the produced oil, residue or remainder,

filtered oil and rapeseed container. To capture the oil flow rate a container has been positioned at

the end of the splash guard over a weight-measuring device. All the containers have been

weighed in empty and filled conditions.

6. Execution of the experiment

Approximately 60 g of crude oil is needed for the second part of the experiment. Considering the

oil content of the rapeseed (40% on average) and losses during the pressing process, 260g ofrapeseed is used in the experiment in order to produce the expect result.

After measuring 70°C in the extrusion die, pressing may be started and rapeseed can be filled in

the feed hopper. At the beginning of the pressing, a soft and oily output stream is to be expected,

which will turn harder and drier during the process. The oil mass flow rate has been measured

each 10s by weighing the oil container. The pressing is finished if there is no more recovery of

oil/residue. After the pressing process the produced oil must be filtered to separate the lee.


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7. Result

Table(1): Rapeseed oil production rate

TimeOil Container

WeightTime

Oil Container

Weight

10 0 440 50.1

20 0 450 50.6

30 0 460 51

40 0 470 51.7

50 0 480 52.1

60 0 490 52.4

70 0 500 52.8

80 3.8 510 53.3

90 9 520 53.8

100 12.9 530 54.3

110 16.5 540 54.7

120 19.3 550 64

130 22.1 560 64.3

140 23.7 570 64.6

150 25.4 580 64.8

160 26.9 590 65

170 28.2 600 65.5

180 29.6 610 65.8

190 30.5 620 66.1

200 31.9 630 66.3

210 33 640 66.6

22034.1

65066.9230 35.1 660 67.2

240 36 670 67.4

250 36.9 680 67.7

260 37.8 690 67.8

270 38.7 700 68.1

280 39.6 710 68.4

290 40.3 720 68.9

300 41.2 730 69.3

310 42 740 69.7

320 42.7 750 70

330 43.3 760 70.3340 44 770 70.6

350 44.7 780 70.9

360 45.1 790 71.2

370 45.7 800 71.4

380 46.3 810 71.5

390 47 820 71.7

400 47.5 830 71.8

410 48 840 72

420 48.6 850 72.2

430 49.1 860 72.3


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Measured values of the oil production rate have been plotted in the following graph.

F igure (3): Rapeseed oil production rate produced from table (1), measuring time approximately 20 minutes

Comments: As can be seen from the graph, at the beginning the production rate is zero.However, after that production starts at a high rate rapidly and then continue to grow at linearly.

A huge rise can be seen in the 8 th minutes following that the curve behaves again linearly until

the rate converges to zero.

Table (2) shows the measured values for container’s weights used in the experiment.

Table (2): Weighs of containers, empty and filled conditions

8. Discussion: Approximately 72g of rapeseed oil achieved from pressing 260g of raw seed.

Considering this fact, the amount of oil extracted in this process is (72/260*100 = 28%) which is

lower than the theoretical value of 40% in the literature. However, this 40% is the aggregate

result of both pressing and solvent extraction. In this experiment 28% is the result of pressing

only but upon further oil extraction ( solvent extraction) this value could come closer to 40%. The

percentage of the extracted oil in figure (1) is roughly 26% which is lower than 28% . Therefore

28 % oil is acceptable at this level.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

W e i g h t [ g ]

Time [s]

Crude oil producation rate

Containers weight

Oil Residue Filter Funnel Rapeseed

Empty 97.6 246.4 34.7 182

Full 102.3 310.4 54.6 442


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References

1.

http://www.eubia.org/index.php/about-biomass/biofuels-for-transport/biodiesel

2. http://www.anton-fries.de/oilpress/en/10802/index.php

3.

http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/02-

03/biofuels/quant_biodiesel.htm

4. http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/OilsFats/content.cfm?ItemNumber=40337

5.

http://whc-oils.com/refined-rapeseed-oil.html

6. http://www.canolacouncil.org/oil-and-meal/what-is-canola/how-canola-is-

processed/steps-in-oil-and-meal-processing/

experiment 4 report - biodiesel production part 1 group #4

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