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Title: COST MODELING OF BIODIESEL PRODUCTION: EFFECT OF FEEDSTOCK AND PROCESSING

Author
item Foglia, Thomas
item Haas, Michael
item McAloon, Andrew
item Marmer, William

Submitted to: UJNR Food & Agricultural Panel Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/25/2004
Publication Date: 12/11/2004
Citation: Foglia, T.A., Haas, M.J., Mcaloon, A.J., Marmer, W.N. 2004. Cost modeling of biodiesel production: effect of feedstock and processing. Proceedings of the United States-Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources, Protein Resources Panel Annual Meeting. p. 50-54.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: In contemporary biodiesel production it is typical to employ a feedstock that is an isolated lipid, such as a vegetable oil, animal fat or grease. For oil seeds, this necessitates the prior isolation of the lipids, which adds cost and processing technology to biodiesel production. We have demonstrated that incubation of flaked soybeans directly in alkaline methanol achieves high efficiency transesterification, eliminating the need for prior isolation of the lipid. Economic analysis, however, indicated that the process costs were not competitive with those for producing biodiesel from isolated oil. We have now determined that the removal of water from the soy flakes greatly reduces the alcohol requirement of the reaction. Following optimization of the reaction employing dried feedstock, an economic analysis indicated a 68% reduction in process costs relative to the use of full-moisture flakes. The results of this analysis are compared with the economics of producing biodiesel from degummed soy oil, soapstocks, and yellow grease.