The high quality biodiesel is one possible alternative of fossil fuel for transportation that would have less green house gas emission therefore contribute to the mitigation of climate change.
The Pilot Plant for High Quality Biodiesel Fuel (BDF) Production is the key research experimentation infrastructure in the “Innovation on production and automotive utilization of biofuels from non-food biomass” project which is jointly funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project aims to explore for potential non-edible crops and biomass (e.g. jatropha seeds) as a new generation source of biofuels for transportation and to develop a mechanism to produce and characterize these biofuels.
The project involves 5 partners – 3 from Thailand and 2 from Japan. They are the National Sciences and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Waseda University.
This biodiesel pilot plant, located on the TISTR premises, bridges the discovery and the scaling up development gap before the mass production manufacturing. It also serves as a training site for the high quality biodiesel production. The esterification reactor, transesterification reactor, glycerin separation tanks, washing tank, distillation tower for methanol and water recovery and hydrogenation reactor for upgrading quality of biodiesel are the major components in this state-of-the-art full cycle pilot plant. The high quality biodiesel produced is in compliance with the international standard of WWFC therefore can be blended at a high ratio into the petroleum diesel for an automobile usage.
Features of the Pilot Plant for High Quality Biodiesel Fuel Production
1. Production capacity of 1 ton/day
2. Automated and continuous process
3. Industrially complete biodiesel production pilot
4. Hydrogenation for biodiesel quality upgrade to WWFC standard
5. Methanol and water recovery system
6. Environmentally friendly process