Buffalo, NY, United States, 07/28/2007 – The Durco Biodiesel Equipment division of Ascension Industries Inc., has announced a new range of Biodiesel Dry Washing & Filtration Systems. The company actually developed these new biodiesel purification & clarification systems from their line of vegetable oil dry washing & filtration units that have been well proven in service since the 1970’s.
Michael DuVal (a Durco Filtration Applications Engineer) explained: “The new range of biodiesel processing equipment uses a 2-Step Magnesium Silicate Dry Wash & Filtration Process to purify and clarify biodiesel into high quality product (capable of meeting or exceeding ASTM-D6571 requirements) from a wide range of biodiesel from prepared feedstocks of; yellow grease, tallow, canola oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, waste vegetable oil (wvo), etc. Durco pilot plant filtration units are now openly available for performance trials at any particular biodiesel plant, in order to optimize a given producers process and verify the resulting biodiesel product specifications.
Unlike traditional water washing or bubble washing equipment, these new dry washing systems achieve highly efficient removal of contaminants found in preparations of methyl-ester (biodiesel). The systems utilize the “surface activity” and high surface area of magnesium silicate adsorbent powder to refine biodiesel containing residual glycerol, and other impurity components. The Filtration Step then removes the contaminated adsorbent and all other particulate down into the sub-micron particulate size range. The purified and clarified biodiesel product may then be sent for sale or storage, and the filtered particulate by-product may be utilized for fertilizer, animal feed, or various other environmentally friendly applications.”
The filtration step may use one of two proven filtration technologies:
- Biodiesel Filter Press Technology (<10mgal/yr,>
- Biodiesel Pressure Leaf Filter Technology (typically >10M gal/yr or much higher, with essentially unlimited high temperature capability for enhanced biodiesel washing).
A wide range of suspended solids (typically 0.5-2% by weight) may be removed, with the optimum choice of filter technology depending on the size of the biodiesel production operation, and several other process factors. Fully automated operation and an optional fail-safe filter station are also offered. Extended solids capture is additionally possible, using downstream Tubular Filter Technology. Durco Biodiesel Dry Washing & Filtration Systems reduce overall biodiesel production time and cost because they eliminate the need for an oil/water emulsion gravity settling stage or a drying stage. This also significantly reduces biodiesel plant start-up and operating costs by eliminating the capital and maintenance associated with the traditional washing equipment.
Another major benefit of these highly efficient biodiesel processing systems is that they do not produce water effluent waste streams, which are hazardous by-products of traditional biodiesel washing & drying techniques.
Durco Biodiesel Dry Washing And Filtration Systems are offered as complete turnkey packages, although individual filter units are also available. These operator-friendly systems can be rated for both ‘non-explosion proof’ or ‘explosion-proof’ areas, and may be configured for either continuous or batch processes.