Cold-Weather Testing of 100% Permaflo Soy Biodiesel at the Arctic Circle

3 March 2009

The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) is partnering with University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), the Alaska Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (AFES) and Purdue University to road test Permaflo Biodiesel, a formulation of biodiesel that significantly reduces the traditional problems of biodiesel gelling in cold-weather conditions.

PermaFlow biodiesel is capable of working at temperatures below -67 °F (-55 °C) without gelling. Traditional soybean B100 crystallizes at approx. 0 °C; blending with petrodiesel lowers crystallization temperatures slightly (approx. 5 °C).

PermaFlow is produced using a cold-flow fractionation process. Traditionally-processed biodiesel contains both saturated and unsaturated oil molecules. The saturated molecules have higher melting temperatures, or cloud points, than the unsaturated oil molecules. The higher the cloud point, the higher the temperature at which crystals begin to form in the biodiesel.

By separating (fractionating) the saturated and unsaturated oil molecules from each other, the remaining unsaturated oil molecules have much lower cloud points than traditional biodiesel. Because they crystallize at much lower temperatures than traditional biodiesel, there is a considerable improvement in cold-weather performance.

The PermaFlow process incorporates urea into the traditional transesterification process, which enables the separation of the saturated and unsaturated biodiesel molecules via the mechanism of urea-biodiesel clathration—the saturated molecules bond with the urea to form solid Urea Inclusion Compounds (UIC), which drop out of the solution.

The process is environmentally benign and compatible with both new and existing biodiesel synthesis plants. It can be used with a variety of feedstocks, including plant, animal and microbial lipids.

ISA has been funding the work on Permaflo Biodiesel for the last five years to help address the critical need for consistent product quality in the growing biodiesel industry. Researchers at UAF and AFES will be joined by ISA farmer-directors and Dr. Bernie Tao, agricultural engineering professor and the ISA Professor in Soybean Utilization at Purdue University, on 4-9 March to test the Permaflo Biodiesel in transportation and stationary power generation.

The group will drive two vehicles running on 100% Permaflo Biodiesel (B100) from Anchorage to Fairbanks—a trip of more than 300 miles on the Parks Highway crossing Denali National Park. One of the Permaflo Biodiesel-powered vehicles will then carry the group an additional 200 miles to the Arctic Circle where they will camp overnight using a generator powered by the Permaflo Biodiesel.

In addition to the testing, ISA representatives and Dr. Tao will participate in a Biofuels Symposium hosted by UAF on 9 March. The presentation will include the results of the testing done with the Permaflo Biodiesel in Alaska, along with updates about ongoing research in biofuels relevant to the resource base of Alaska, in agriculture, forestry, and new technology development.

Resources

• Biodiesel Processing (Tao 2007)