Biofuel companies need a way to understand the quality and purity of the fats they process
Biofuel companies need a way to understand the quality and purity of the fats they process. Biofuel companies process plant and animal fats into higher value biodiesel and other fuels. The quality and purity of the fats can vary wildly – from relatively clean sources to extremely complex mixtures with many contaminants and impurities.
Low quality fat sources can lead to many downstream problems. In some cases, the fat source can be “pretreated” to reduce or remove the undesired materials. In other cases, contaminants and impurities can partially or fully poison biofuel catalysts, leading to increased processing costs and factory downtime.
If a low quality fat source is pooled with or combined with relatively clean fat sources, the combined larger batch will be made less desirable or even unusable. We’re in search of a primary author for a technology and market report describing existing technologies that are responsive to this need for a diagnostic tool or system A rapid diagnostic tool or system that can be used at the initial source would be extremely valuable in assaying the relative value of the fat source.
Early identification of low quality sources allows rejection at the source and prevention of it contaminating other higher quality sources. In particular, a technician should be able to determine ppm levels of phosphorous, chlorine, nitrogen, iron, and sodium in 30 minutes or less from a wide variety of fat sources.
This opportunity comes from the efforts of Xinova’s R&D Consulting and Innovation team.
Are you up for the challenge?