VEGETABLE OIL AND BIOFUEL

Vegetable oils are narrowly defined as referring only to plant oils that are liquid at room
temperature, or broadly defined without regard to a substance's state of matter at a
given temperature.
Biofuel is a fuel produced from contemporary biological processes rather than prehistoric
geological processes
Brief History
4000 B.C.E
10th century B.C.E
17th century C.E
1700s-

- sumerians discover the process of fermentation

- assyrians used biogas for heating bathing water
- helmont observes that organic matter emits flammable gases.
He introduce the word gas

- vegetable oils and fats lit up streets in Europe. Whale oil was
extensively used for lighting houses.

1800s

-the use of whale oil declined drastically due to the significant

decrease in the whale population. The use of wood oil also
declined because the price went up
due to unsustainable use of timber.
- the use of cheaper fossil fuels became popular
- the prohibition movement in the U.S. stopped biofuels
development in its
tracks
1808 - davy discovers methane as the end product of anaerobic digestion.
1826 - Samuel morey invented the first spark-ignition engine using alcohol
1860 - nikolaus otto develops otto-cycle engine to run on ethanol
1864 - louis Pasteur describes the process of fermentation scientifically
1880s - first successful internal combustion engine using producer gas was
invented
1894 - Dr. Rudolph Diesel patented a compression ignition engine. He
successfully operated a prototype engine in 1897.
1895 - biogas is used to fuel street lamps in Exeter, great Britain
-cameron designed a septic tank that collects methane from sewage to
light the streets of Exeter, great Britain.
1900s

-there was a fossil fuel shortage because of world war 1 and

several oil crisis
Germany creates worlds first large-scale biofuels industry
America moves toward biofuels with repeal of alcohol tax
1940s - first US ethanol plant opens
1969 - arrival of cheap abundant oil from Saudi arabia
1973 - attack on Israel, arab nations impose oil imbargo
1979 - commercial alcohol blended fuels are marketed
1980 - president jimmy carter offers tax incentives for ethanol production
-in late 1980s price of fossil fuel drops resulting to nearly a bankruptcy of
Ethanol industry
1988 - ethanol was used for the first time as an oxygenate to lower pollution
caused
by burning gasoline.
1990 - lead and air toxics barred from gasoline, corn-based ethanol blend is a
Popular alternative

2000s
Uses
Cooking
Food supplements
Cosmetics
Soaps
Candle
Perfume
Medical Purposes

-crop-based fuels return amidst uncertainty

Fuel
Processes involved for vegetable oil production
1. Seed Preparation
Incoming oil seeds are passed over magnets to remove any trace metal before being
dehulled, deskinned, or otherwise stripped of all extraneous material. In the case of
cotton, the ginned seeds must be stripped of their lint as well as dehulled.
2. Pressing
The extraction stage itself is carried out using a screw press. The press is fed by means
of a variable speed conveyor within the feeder unit. The feeder regulates the flow of
material into the press and thereby controls the loading on the press main motor. Oil
released along the length of the cage is allowed to drain into the base of the press where
it is collected. The
solid material (press cake) remaining within the press is finally discharged into
conveyors to be removed for subsequent processing or storage.
3. Solvent extraction
The press cake emerging from a screw press still retains 3 to 15 percent of residual oil.
More complete extraction is done by solvent extraction of the residues obtained from
mechanical pressing. The greater efficiency obtained in the solvent extraction process
encouraged the industry for direct application to oilseeds. The common solvent for edible
oil is commercial hexane or heptane, commonly known as petroleum ethers, boiling in
the range of 146 to 156F (63.3 to 68.9C). After extraction, maximum solvent recovery
is necessary for economical operation. The solvent is recovered by distillation and is
reused. The extraction oil is mixed with prepress oil for refining. The extracted meals
contain less than 1 percent of residual oil.
4. Refining
Degumming
The first step of chemical refining is degumming. Its purpose is to remove seed particles,
impurities, and (partly) phosphatides, carbohydrates, proteins and traces of metals. The
extracted oil is treated with foodgrade processing aids and/or water, which leads to
hydration of the main part of the phosphatides, proteins, carbohydrates and traces of
metals. The hydrated material precipitates from the oil and can be removed by
centrifugation.
Bleaching
The purpose of bleaching is to reduce the levels of pigments such as carotenoids and
chlorophyll, heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, but also residues of phospholipids,
soaps, traces of metals and oxidation products. These substances are removed by
adsorption with activated clay, silica or activated carbon. The bleaching clay containing
all these substances is separated by filtration.
Deodorization
Most fats and oils, even after refining, have characteristic flavors and odors owing to the
presence of minor amounts of free fatty acids, aldehydes, ketones, and other
compounds. The concentration of these undesirable substances, found in most oils, is
generally low, between 0.2 and 0.5 percent. The purpose of deodorization is to reduce or
strip out free fatty acids and to remove odours, off-flavours and other volatile
components.
5. Modification Processes
The physical characteristics (e.g. hardness, melting profile) of oils, fats and blends can
be adjusted to meet customer requirements by means of Modification processes. The
modification techniques used are hydrogenation, interesterification or fractionation.
Hydrogenation
The basis of Hydrogenation is the addition of hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acids to
create saturated fats with a higher melting point. Oils can be either partially or fully
hydrogenated.
Interesterification/esterification
Interesterification is a process where different oils are combined to produce a fat with
different melting characteristics. This process involves the separation of triglycerides into
fatty acids and glycerol followed by recombination

Process flow diagram for oil production:

Processes involved in the production of biofuel

1. Glycerol separation
Following the reaction, the glycerol is removed from the methyl esters. Due to the
low solubility of glycerol in the esters, this separation generally occurs quickly and
may be accomplished with either a settling tank or a centrifuge. The excess
methanol tends to act as a solubilizer and can slow the separation. However, this
excess methanol is usually not removed from the reaction stream until after the
glycerol and methyl esters are separated, because the transesterification reaction is
reversible and the methyl esters may recombine with glycerin to form
monoglycerides.
2. Methanol separation
After separation from the glycerol, the methyl esters pass through a methanol
stripper, usually a vacuum flash process or a falling film evaporator, before entering
a neutralization step and water washing. Acid is added to the biodiesel to neutralize
any residual catalyst and to split any soap that may have formed during the reaction.
Soaps will react with the acid to form water-soluble salts and free fatty acids. The
salts will be removed during the water washing step and the free fatty acids will stay
in the biodiesel.
3. Washing the biodiesel
A water washing step is intended to remove any remaining catalyst, soap, salts,
methanol or free glycerol from the biodiesel. Neutralization before washing reduces
the water required and minimizes the potential for emulsions to form when the wash
water is added to the biodiesel. Following the wash process, any remaining water is
removed from the biodiesel by a vacuum flash process. In recent years, socalled waterless wash processes have been developed that minimize the need for
waste water treatment and disposal.
4. Handling free fatty acids
Special processes are required if the oil or fat contains significant amounts of free
fatty acids (FFAs). Used cooking oils typically contain 2 percent to 7 percent FFAs,
and animal fats contain from 5 percent to 30 percent FFAs. When an alkali catalyst
is added to these feedstocks, the free fatty acid reacts with the catalyst to form soap
and water
Process flow diagram for the production of biofuel

By products/Waste and Waste Treatment

The most obvious byproduct of the oil making process is oil seed cake. Most kinds of
seed cake are used to make animal feed and low-grade fertilizer, others are simply
disposed of. In the case of cotton, the lint on the seed is used to make yarn and
cellulose that go into such products as mattresses, rayon, and lacquer. Coconut oil
generates several byproducts, with various uses: desiccated coconut meat (copra) is
used in the confectionery industry; coconut milk can be consumed; and coir, the fiber
from the outer coat, is used to make mats and rope. Since corn oil is derived from a
small portion of the entire kernel, it creates corn meal and hominy if it is dry milled, and
corn starch and corn syrup if it is wet milled.
Lecithin is a byproduct of the degumming process used in making soybean oil. This
industrially valuable product is used to make animal feed, chocolate, cosmetics, soap,
paint, and plasticsto name just a few of its diverse uses. Recent research has focused
on utilizing the residual oil seed cake. The cake is high in protein and other nutrients,
and researchers are working to develop methods of processing it into a palatable food
that can be distributed in areas where people lack sufficient protein in their diets. This
goal requires ridding (through additional processing) the oil seed cake of various
undesirable toxins (such as gossypol in cotton seed, or aflatoxin in peanut meal). Initial
results are promising.
Prospect companies in the vegetable and biofuel industry
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Primex coco products, inc.

Superstar coconut products co. Inc
Celebes coconut corporation
Franklin baker
Tantuco enterprises, inc.
Nutri asia