BayFAME®: A New Technology to Produce High Quality Biodiesel from Less Expensive Feed Stocks

Continuous Free Fatty Acid Esterification

Today, the manufacturing costs of Biodiesel are dominated by the feedstock costs. While the feedstock presents 80 % of the cost of goods, other factors like investment cost, utilities and labor only play a minor role. Furthermore, feedstock prices and availability are a moving target in today’s environment since typical feed stocks like soybean oil and rapeseed oil, which are easily turned into Biodiesel (FAME), have reached price records of 1,500 $/t and 1,400 $/t in 2008 and have been volatile ever since. Less expensive potential feed stocks are available but they contain a significant amount of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) which cannot be processed in conventional Biodiesel plants. In the past, these free fatty acids had to be treated as waste or as a by-product of low value. Some acid esterification techniques for these FFA were available in the market but presented significant issues in terms of acid removal and waste water treatment.

With BayFAME^®, the new clean FFA-Esterification Technology developed by Bayer Technology Services based on the Dow AMBERLYST™ BD20 catalyst biodiesel producers will now be able to turn any FFA-containing feed stock into FAME without worrying about yield loss, acids and waste. Whether customers want to use a specific feedstock like different types of animal fat, used cooking oil, trap grease, jatropha or even 100 wt% FFA (PFAD), or want to achieve a maximum flexibility in feedstock, BayFAME^® presents the solution to get the competitive advantage and flexibility to succeed in a world of volatile oil and raw material prices.