Separator's Digest - GEA Westfalia Separator Group

the year 2020 is under discussion. taxes will
also be raised in parallel. Mineral oil tax will
be charged at the full rate for biodiesel and
vegetable oil used as fuel starting in 2012.
the original subsidies for organic fuels have
thus been abolished.
Long-standing
process know-how
in Germany, the corresponding biodiesel
production capacities have already been
expanded in recent years. GEA Westfalia
separator has been very much involved in
this process both as a supplier of standalone
machines as well as a supplier for the
entire core equipment of biodiesel factories.
in the process of manufacturing biodiesel,
vegetable oil is mixed with methanol and
various reagents as catalysts; the ester
compounds of the vegetable oil triglycerides
are separated and the fatty acids which
are generated are transesterified with the
methanol. the glycerine obtained in this
process is separated from the biodiesel.
special separators are used for this stage.
this main process is connected with the
pre-treatment of the vegetable oil, also
using separators. GEA Westfalia separator
uses the familiar Cd process (Connemann
AdM system) for recovering biodiesel; in
the pre-treatment stage, GEA Westfalia
separator has extended this method to
include alcoholic neutralisation of the free
fatty acids with the glycerine obtained from
the transesterification process.
the subsequent recovery of methanol
by means of rectification and glycerine
water concentration are purely thermal
processes, which however have also been
supplied by GEA Westfalia separator as
part of the overall process support. thanks
to its extensive know-how and long-
standing involvement in biodiesel technology,
GEA Westfalia separator was in many cases
responsible for the entire engineering. this
makes sense particularly in view of the fact
that interface problems were circumvented
with the closely linked process stages.
GEA Westfalia separator generally worked
with local companies for producing the
peripheral equipment, for instance steam
generation.
Rapeseed, soy,
palm and sunflower oil
in Germany rapeseed oil is still the main
primary substance used in the production
of biodiesel, with an oil content in the seeds
of 40 to 45 percent. the agricultural surface
requirement is around 10 square metres
for each litre of diesel equivalent. on the
other hand, in other countries of Europe,
soy oil and a mixture of soy oil and palm
oil are now more prevalent. sunflower oil
is however also used in countries such as
romania and Bulgaria. there is still backlog
demand for biodiesel installations in poland
and Greece for instance.
in addition, in south America, and
particularly in Brazil and Argentina with their
huge soy plantations, there is an increasing
trend for biodiesel to be produced for
export. in parallel, the capacities of the
Jatropha is a further possible vegetable
oil and thus sustainable energy supplier.
This nut is very robust and frugal. Because
it readily survives lengthy periods of
drought and because it is hardly eaten by
any animals at all because of its toxic
juice, it is an ideal plant in tropical
countries for the afforestation of desert
areas or the re-afforestation of agricultural
areas which have been abandoned as
a result of drought or soil erosion.
According to estimates, the potential
area for cultivating the jatropha nut
world-wide is between two and three
million square metres.
the World Bank supports the cultivation
of jatropha, also in india, on condition
biodiesel installations are expanding to
new dimensions. Whereas a few years
ago a production of 100,000 tonnes of
biodiesel per annum with one installation
was the upper limit, installations producing
200,000 tonnes per annum are now
standard. the newest projects are already
considering capacities of 400 to 500,000
tonnes per annum. the situation is similar
in south-East Asia, Malaysia, indonesia
and the philippines, where palm oil from
plantations can be used as the raw material
for biodiesel.
BiodiEsEl froM thE jAtrophA nut
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Separator’s Digest 3 | 2008
GEA Westfalia Separator Process
that no fertile land is used for such
cultivation, that reasonable wages are
paid, that low transport costs are incurred
and that crude oil imports can be avoided.
the nut, which grows on shrubs, is not
suitable for human consumption; there is
accordingly no ethical conflict of using
food for generating energy. Without
doubt, the use of sustainable raw materials
as fuels or for heat production will result in
competition with the cultivation of food.
however, the world-wide energy problem
also needs to be solved. it is not necessarily
the case that large areas of virgin forest
will have to be used for this purpose. in
indonesia alone, several million hectares
of agricultural land have already been
laid waste. By way of cultivation and
sustainable management of these “steppe
landscapes“, biodiesel could create a
meaningful and sustainable source of
income for the population. however, even
in the middle of Europe, in Germany, there
is enough fallow land, in certain cases
even subsidised as such by the Eu, which
could be put to better use.
Biodiesel continues to be an alternative
to mineral oil based diesel fuel. And
GEA Westfalia separator will continue to
be a leader in the field of supplying
centrifugal technology for producing
biodiesel.