INTRODUCING BIO DIESEL
Biodiesel
is a clean-burning, renewable fuel made from animal or vegetable fats and oils, and alcohol and catalyst; chemical name of
the process transformation is called trans-esterification. The fuel properties of biodiesel are very similar to those of petroleum
diesel, and biodiesel has the potential to completely replace petroleum diesel in many applications. Biodiesel can be
readily integrated into the existing petroleum diesel supply, transportation, and distribution infrastructure. Can be used
in power generation with varying blends. Biodiesel
can be used in most conventional diesel engines with NO retrofit.
The original
diesel engine designed by Rudolph Diesel in the 1890's used peanut oil. Because petroleum products were less expensive,
diesel engines were converted to run on petro-diesel by 1900. However, Diesel had the foresight to state "the use of
vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important
as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time."
Biodiesel
has greater lubricity than petroleum diesel, which reduces engine wear.
Ultra-Low-Sulfur
(ULS) Diesel requires an additive to improve its lubricity. Unlike the synthetic lubricity additives currently used, biodiesel
is an organic, combustible fuel. With even 2% biodiesel added, fuel burns more efficiently and even improves the efficiency
of retrofit technologies like diesel oxidation catalysts and particulate filters by inhibiting the accumulation of ash.
Biodiesel
is significantly less toxic than petroleum diesel, and is more biodegradable than petro diesel, reducing the negative impacts
of spills.
Biodiesel
is four times as efficient as diesel fuel in utilizing fossil energy. Biodiesel yields around 3.2 units of fuel for
every unit of fossil energy consumed in the lifecycle. By contrast, petroleum diesels life cycle yields on only 0.83
units of fuel product per unit of fossil energy consumed.
In not
too distant future, bio diesel will be produced in much larger quantities, and at a much lower cost, from ALGAE. NREL's research
showed that one quad (7.5 billion gallons) of bio diesel could be produced from ALGAE grown on 200K hectares of desert land.
In USA bio diesel is primarily processed
from soybean seeds and to lesser degree from animal fats, WVO. Depending on local availability, bio diesel is primarily produced from canola in Canada & Europe, from palm in South East Asia and few South American countries.
Countries like India and several African nations are planning to produce bio diesel from non-edible oil of Jatropha seeds, without adversely impacting the edible oil production and demand. Production has been steadily growing and US
production was 225 million gallons for 2006.
Because
of environmental benefits and production of renewable fuel, incentives like production and tax credits, accelerated deprec.
outright grants and guaranteed low cost loans etc are available for production of bio diesel. Industry growth has somewhat
slowed during 2007, especially due to quick rise of feedstock price.
PDR Assocs Energy group has been working on feasibility, engineering and development
of several bio diesel projects both in US and India.
Staff of our certified bio diesel engineers and developers supports the clients in developing the project and provide engineering,
procurement and financial services.
We have
developed, resourced cost effective process of producing with integrated process equipments to produce BQ 9000 certified bio diesel and associated saleable byproducts.
Based on process and systems, our dry and/or water wash system for B100 can economize system cost by 40% compared to market.
INTRODUCING LAND FILL GAS (LFG) TO ENERGY
Produced
from organic waste disposed of in land fills over the years. As the higher layers of wastes mechanically compress on lower
layers of waste, LFG is formed through anaerobic digestion process.
Depending
on many characteristics of the waste like composition, age, rain fall and others, LFG contain methane gas (about 45 to 55%),
CO2 (about 55 to 45%) and trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, nitrogen and moisture.
Normally
a land fill has a piped LFG collection system in place to progressively collect, measure CFM over the years and facilitate
atmospheric burning of methane through flaring stations.
However,
because of high energy value and potential
environmental benefits, many of these land
fills are being developed into renewable energy
projects. They can generate electricity and/or
produce pipe quality natural gas. Depending
on composition, LFG is filtered, dried/cooled
and/or compressed to fire an IC engine,
gas turbine, fuel cell to generate electricity
and could additionally provide heating
or cooling
on highly energy efficient CHP systems. Based
on economic and environmental considerations,
LFG can also be just cleaned and filtered
to be utilized as pipe quality natural gas fuel.
Because
of environmental and economic benefits and production of renewable energy, generous incentives like production and tax credits,
accelerated depreciation, outright grants and guaranteed low cost loans are available when these systems are installed. Because
of free fuel, price of energy from LFGE is low & stable.
PDR Assocs
Energy group has worked on several LFGE (Land Fill Gas to Energy) projects in Eastern states and provided services like feasibility,
engineering, procurements, financial analysis. These plants generally have quick pay back periods like three to four years.
There
are a number of makers around the world who developed and are making these specialty and heavy duty equipment systems that
are reliable in processing this quite toxic and sub quality fuel into renewable energy source. We have represented few of
these system manufacturers and specify based on application.
PDR Assocs
Energy Group has worked the technical and economic details to propose a LFGE system to Warren County
and provided professional and procurement services in designing and installing LFGE projects for client in New Jersey, Pennsylvania including one municipality in central India.
DAIRY GAS AND DIGESTER GAS FROM WASTE WATER TRTMNT PLANT AS ENERGY SOURCE
Waste
management from dairy herds is a growing environmental concern. States are seeking innovative solutions for dairy waste management
and new programs for greater development of renewable energy resources.
For individual
farms, small-scale plug-flow or covered lagoon digesters of simple design can produce biogas for on-site electricity and heat
generation. For example, a plug-flow digester could process 8,000 gallons of manure per day, the amount produced by a herd
of 500 dairy cows. By using digester gas to fuel an engine-generator, a digester of this size would produce more electricity
and hot water than the dairy consumes.
Larger
scale digesters are suitable for manure volumes of 25,000 to 100,000 gallons per day. In Denmark and in several other European countries, central digester facilities use
manure and other organic wastes collected from individual farms and transported to the facility.
Myriads of creative and feasible
solutions to convert many kinds of wastes into renewable energy:
1) Turn Kitchen Grease into biogas to fire micro-turbine
providing electricity and heat to the existing digester at a Wastewater Treatment Plant. Also Produce bio diesel for diesel
engines from kitchen grease has been other application.
2) Turn coal bed methane into renewable electricity
and heat.
