Biodiesel catalyst quality testing may be much faster for producers, thanks to SwRI technology
In Texas, Southwest Research Institute has installed a new piece of technology that will allow biodiesel producers to evaluate the quality and profitability of their catalysts at a rate of half a liter per hour, allowing more tests to be run in a shorter time. The experimental circulating fluidized bed (CFB) helps convert heavy crude oils or biological feedstock such as corn, into valuable, refined fuel samples that clients can assess for quality and profitability.
“In the U.S., a pilot-sized CFB such as ours is unique since conventional FCC testing equipment is smaller and produces very small quantities of material for testing,” said Eloy Flores, an assistant manager in the Fuels and Energy Development Section in SwRI’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division. The 15 foot tall, 150 square foot CFB is in operation and available to respond to the current push for biofuels, which require catalyst-aided processing of raw materials, or feedstock, derived from biological materials such as algae, corn or wood, or from refinery products such as heavy crude oil. Clients can use a CFB to evaluate new catalysts and determine how plant-derived, bio feedstocks and bio oils can be efficiently integrated into refineries.
SwRI’s new circulating fluidized bed is flexible in operation to test both fast pyrolysis processes for biomass-to-biofuels conversion technologies and FCC refinery unit operations.
Category: Research
