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Title: THE PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL FUEL FROM MEAT AND BONE MEAL

Author
item COLL, BRIAN - WIDENER UNIVERSITY
item Haas, Michael
item Garcia, Rafael
item Marmer, William

Submitted to: American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/30/2004
Publication Date: 11/7/2004
Citation: Coll, B.A., Haas, M.J., Garcia, R.A., Marmer, W.N. 2004. The production of biodiesel fuel from meat and bone meal [abstract]. American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting. p. 46.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Due to government restrictions on the use of meat & bone meal (MBM) in ruminant feed, new uses for the inedible material left from animal rendering are being studied. We have investigated the direct transesterification of MBM for the conversion of its triglyceride content into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). FAME can be used as biodiesel, a petrodiesel alternative. Biodiesel was successfully produced by reacting MBM with methanol in the presence of a base catalyst. Thus, each mole of triglyceride yielded a mole of glycerol and three moles of FAME. We used response surface methodology to optimize product yields; the key reaction parameters studied were the amount of methanol, base concentration, reaction time and temperature, and moisture content. At optimum, the yield of FAME was nearly 1/10 mass based on MBM. This represents nearly quantitative conversion. The in situ nature of the process allows for the use of MBM without prior isolation of its triglyceride, and also for the recovery of protein for further processing or downstream utilization. A unit operation was explored to remove some of the bone fraction from MBM, since the desired lipid is found mostly in the meaty protein portion.