Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis as an Alternative to Vacuum Distillation for Methyl Ester Recovery from Biodiesel Vacuum Distillation Bottoms

Erik Anderson; Junwen Zhou; Liangliang Fan; Shiyu Liu; Nan Zhou; Peng Peng; Yanling Cheng; Paul L Chen; R. R Ruan

doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b03018

Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis as an Alternative to Vacuum Distillation for Methyl Ester Recovery from Biodiesel Vacuum Distillation Bottoms

Erik Anderson, Junwen Zhou, Liangliang Fan, Shiyu Liu, Nan Zhou, Peng Peng, Yanling Cheng, Paul L Chen, R. R Ruan

Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The use of vacuum distillation for commercial biodiesel production has become a reliable post-treatment method for removing multiple impurity types, consistently producing high-grade biodiesel. During biodiesel distillation two streams are formed, a purified vapor stream and a liquid waste stream or "bottoms". Vacuum distillation bottoms (VDB) are a mixture of higher molecular weight methyl esters (84%) and derivatives. Microwave-assisted pyrolysis (MAP) has been researched as a methyl ester recovery process for VDBs leaving vacuum distillation. Two types of MAP processing, distillation microwave-assisted pyrolysis (dMAP) and flash microwave-assisted pyrolysis (fMAP), were developed and tested to determine the optimal reaction conditions for producing a biodiesel analogue. After dMAP, 85.9 wt %/wt of the VDBs was recovered as a transparent bio-oil and then blended back into B100 biodiesel and certified for sale using ASTM D6751. Blending dMAP bio-oil (10 wt %/wt) with B100 biodiesel met all certification requirements and demonstrated that MAP processing could be a significant yield improvement technology for any commercial biodiesel producer utilizing vacuum distillation.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	14348-14355
Number of pages	8
Journal	ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
Volume	6
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b03018
State	Published - Nov 5 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to New Leaf Biodiesel for their help supplying commercially produced VDBs. This project was supported in part by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), the Metropolitan Council for Environmental Services (MCES), the University of Minnesota MNDrive program, the Grand Challenge program, and the Center for Biorefining. R.R. is Distinguished Guest Professor, Nanchang University, and Professor and Director, University of Minnesota.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

Bio-oil
Biodiesel
Distillation
Microwave
Pyrolysis
System design

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis as an Alternative to Vacuum Distillation for Methyl Ester Recovery from Biodiesel Vacuum Distillation Bottoms",

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AU - Zhou, Nan

AU - Peng, Peng

AU - Cheng, Yanling

AU - Chen, Paul L

AU - Ruan, R. R

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are grateful to New Leaf Biodiesel for their help supplying commercially produced VDBs. This project was supported in part by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), the Metropolitan Council for Environmental Services (MCES), the University of Minnesota MNDrive program, the Grand Challenge program, and the Center for Biorefining. R.R. is Distinguished Guest Professor, Nanchang University, and Professor and Director, University of Minnesota. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society.

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ER -

Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis as an Alternative to Vacuum Distillation for Methyl Ester Recovery from Biodiesel Vacuum Distillation Bottoms

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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