UC Santa Cruz: New chemical process makes biodiesel production easier, less energy intensive

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://news.ucsc.edu/2024/11/biodiesel-easier-process.html

New chemical process makes biodiesel production easier, less energy intensive
Discovery by UC Santa Cruz researchers could accelerate biofuel’s adoption

November 08, 2024
By Jasmin Galvan

UC Santa Cruz chemists have discovered a new way to produce biodiesel from waste oil that both simplifies the process and requires relatively mild heat. This discovery has the potential to make the alternative fuel source much more appealing to the massive industrial sectors that are the backbone of the nation’s economy.

In 2022, the U.S. transportation sector alone used about 3 million barrels of diesel per day, accounting for about 75% of total consumption of the fuel in this country. That same year, diesel use accounted for about 10% of total energy-related CO2 emissions in the United States, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

While some companies have turned towards electric vehicles to reduce their carbon footprint, the vast majority of fleets still run on diesel—in part, because biodiesel production is difficult, energy intensive, and so, has slowed adoption. Of all the energy sources used by the U.S. transportation sector in 2022, biofuels accounted for just 6%.

In their study, published on October 3 in the American Chemical Society journal Energy & Fuels, lead author Kevin Lofgren details a new way to turn used vegetable oil into biodiesel that involves sodium tetramethoxyborate (NaB(OMe)4). This chemical, used to make the active ingredient that reacts with oil to make biodiesel, is considered unique because it allows the biofuel to be easily separated from the byproducts of production—by simply pouring them off.

…

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.4c03643

[NNadir]

1. We're in a great position to reproduce the 1998 fires from Malaysian slash and burn rain forest clearing for biodiesel.

Selvakumar Dhandapani, Stephanie Evers, Oil palm ‘slash-and-burn’ practice increases post-fire greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient concentrations in burnt regions of an agricultural tropical peatland, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 742, 2020.

Why the hell not? All of the other so called "renewable energy" fantasies have left the planet in flames, so what do we have to lose? We've been fucked by renewable energy fantasies already, so let's throw caution to wind.

And when the monoculture palm oil plantations burn themselves after high temperatures and drought, why the newly formed deserts would make great locations for industrial solar parks.

No sense of decency, none.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. You're just set on autoflame aren't you?

UC Santa Cruz chemists have discovered a new way to produce biodiesel from waste oil that both simplifies the process and requires relatively mild heat. This discovery has the potential to make the alternative fuel source much more appealing to the massive industrial sectors that are the backbone of the nation’s economy.

The other day, I saw a tank truck pulled up to a local pub, taking their fryer grease to process into biodiesel, and I was thrilled! I’m certainly no fan of growing crops to drive our vehicles, but processing fryer grease to produce an alternative to petroleum? I’m all in favor.

This improves the process.

[NNadir]

3. What's flaming is the planet. I just appeal to data. It reminds me a lot of Harry Truman's quip about Republicans...

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. The OP had nothing to do with growing crops to produce biofuels

In case I have been unclear. I do not support growing crops to power our vehicles, not corn ethanol, not palm oil…

On the other hand, given the choice between dumping fryer grease into the waste stream, or using it to replace a small percentage of the petroleum we burn, I believe the choice to be clear. Improving the efficiency with which it is done is all to the good.

[NNadir]

6. I'm a chemist. I've made methyl esters of fatty acids in the lab many times. In the old days, it was a standard...

...procedure for analysis of fatty acids by GC. To a large extent it's been supplanted by modern LC/MSⁿ, we just don't need to make FAME (fatty acid methyl esters) for analytical purposes.

Of course, on a microscale, the source usually doesn't matter, but it is true that there are literally thousands of ways to conduct transesterification, none of which are particularly better than any other.

In any case, the energy requirements are trivial for transesterification of fatty acids to make FAME.

Anyone who wishes to represent however that sources do not matter for industrial processes is probably completely indifferent to what is and what is not sustainable.

I see the type often; they pull up some lab procedure pushed via a university press release designed to support applications to generate grants, and gush all over it, totally ignoring the difference between benchtop chemistry and industrial processes.

What would the point of the OP be? That biodiesel is now "sustainable?"

In my opinion it isn't. Biofuels have failed, like the rest of so called "renewable energy" to address the extreme global heating we are now observing, and in fact, the extreme global heating will increasingly make them - and for that matter food - less and less available.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. I'm not impressed. I produced esters in High School...

You simply reject the work of others without bothering to read about it at all. That’s not good science.

“This new method is special because it is simple and affordable. It has the bonus of being able to regenerate the starting material,” Lofgren said. “It's already low-cost enough to make it competitive. But if you can buy the most expensive ingredient once and then regenerate it, it would be more cost efficient in the long run.”

[NNadir]

8. So what? My point was that it makes no difference how biodiesel is made industrially. I would expect...

...that anyone who had a modicum of education that sunk in would know that making esters is not the big point about biodiesel, whereas the source is.

It is the source that is unsustainable.

I'm certainly not here gushing over trivial chemistry put out by university press releases, feeling the need to tell everyone about it, since my education sank in, whereas it appears that there are people who failed to grasp the meaning of even their high school educations, who find it necessary to report that a new approach to a trivial reaction somehow matters.

It doesn't.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. Uh huh...

You’re an absolutist. 100% of usable energy must be derived from nuclear power or you will be dissatisfied.

Reality doesn’t care about your preferences.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. By the way

Harry Truman approved dropping nuclear weapons on two Japanese cities in part because he had been misinformed regarding the bombs (he thought they were essentially just more powerful explosives) and the targets (he had been told they were military targets.)

I suggest you attempt to become better informed, rather than simply being an agent of mindless destruction.