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April 11, 2005 NDSU is Demonstrating Biodiesel Made from Canola Oil North Dakota State University’s North Central Research Extension Center in Minot is starting a demonstration project to demonstrate that biodiesel made from canola oil works. “Biodiesel is an excellent renewable fuel for diesel engines,” says Vern Hofman, an NDSU Extension Service agricultural engineer. “It can be derived from almost all oil-producing crops, which chemically are converted into biodiesel.” The demonstration project involves using canola oil-based biodiesel in one or two tractors during the growing season. The biodiesel will be mixed with diesel fuel at a ratio of 20 percent biodiesel to 80 percent diesel. Center officials decided to use canola oil-based biodiesel in its project instead of commercially available biodiesel since the commercial biodiesel is made from soybeans, says Jay Fisher, the center’s director. The Minot area has many more acres of canola than soybeans. Archer Daniels Midland Co. provided more than 300 gallons of canola oil for the project and the NDSU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department converted it into biodiesel. The conversion process is called transesterification, according to Hofman. It reduces the size of the canola vegetable oil molecule, which is a fatty acid that is very similar to diesel fuel. The fuel is called fatty acid methyl ester, which also has the more popular name of biodiesel. A gallon of vegetable oil will produce about 1 gallon of biodiesel. Transesterification also produces a secondary product called glycerin. Canola oil is used extensively in Europe as a diesel fuel extender, but none is used in the United States. Fisher said the Research Extension Center’s project is demonstrating canola oil-based biodiesel since it is an excellent fuel extender. Center officials also chose it because canola oil-based biodiesel soon will be available in the United States through the $50 million biodiesel manufacturing plant being built in Minot. “The state of North Dakota has tremendous potential to produce an alternative fuel for diesel engines,” Hofman says. “As the name implies, biodiesel is similar to diesel fuel, except it is produced from crops commonly grown in North Dakota.” Canola, soybeans, sunflowers and safflowers are some of the main crops. All of them are capable of producing about 50 to 100 gallons of fuel per acre that can be used in an unmodified diesel engine, he says. An estimate of the fuel production from the state’s three main oil-producing crops in 2003 - soybeans, canola and sunflowers - is more than 300 million gallons. Fuel production from any other oil-producing crops would be in addition to this amount. In comparison, North Dakota agriculture uses about 85 million gallons of diesel fuel per year. Canola oil-based biodiesel also is very cost effective to produce, based on its input and output ratio. It provides 3.3 British thermal units (Btus) of energy for every Btu put into growing canola and processing it into biodiesel, Hofman says. However, biodiesel has some drawbacks, such as its gelling ability and higher cost than diesel, he says. Pure biodiesel from soybeans will gel at about 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Canola oil-based biodiesel gels at about 15 to 20 F, which means it will flow at lower temperatures. He recommends mixing biodiesel with No.1 diesel fuel, along with adding anti-gel products and fuel heaters to engines to reduce the gelling problem. The North Central Research Extension Center’s demonstration project will help show producers how to work around these problems, Fisher says. Studies of engines using biodiesel show excellent results. Biodiesel has an energy value that is slightly less than diesel fuel. Its cetane number is equal to or higher than diesel fuel, it burns cleaner than diesel and will mix in any proportion with diesel. Power output is reduced only slightly with pure biodiesel, and most engine emissions, including hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides and particulates, are lower. Most diesel engine manufacturers guarantee their engine if it uses biodiesel the same as diesel, up to a 20 percent biodiesel-80 percent diesel blend. If engines older than 1993 models use higher fuel ratios, some fuel system seals may fail. This should not be a problem in newer engines, Hofman says. For more information, check out Extension publication AE-1240. It is available at all North Dakota county Extension offices or through the Extension Web site at www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/ageng/machine/ae1240.pdf. ### Source:
Vern Hofman, (701) 231-7240, vhofman@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
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