The Science and Technology
We believe passionately that continuous research and investment into new
technologies is vital to lead a British Model biofuels business into the future.
We have incorporated innovative processes and solutions throughout our 20,000m
production facility:
Revolutionary Biofuel Production
Our biodiesel is produced using a new state of the art continuous reactor, which
out performs conventional batch method reactions in a variety of important ways:
Speed
The speed of our process is achieved by improving the mixing between the two
reactant ingredients; vegetable oil and methanol. Our reactor achieves near perfect
turbulent mixing, reducing the reaction time from eight hours (typical of
conventional reactors) to just one hour.
Efficiency
The Phoenix technology creates process
intensification. We have been able to achieve ester
conversions (the conversion of vegetable oil to
biodiesel) consistently above 99%, using a methanol
excess (the quantity of extra methanol used to drive
the reaction forwards) much lower than in
conventional batch production.
Saving Energy
Our continuous reactor has been developed to a high level of efficiency, which
saves significantly more energy than conventional processes. Although the same
volume of liquid needs to be heated in both continuous and batch reactors,
continuous reactors can heat more effectively and uniformly, so less energy is
wasted on unnecessary heating. Energy is also indirectly saved through process
intensification: less excess methanol is used, so less energy is required to recover
this methanol during the cleaning process.
Creating a premium biofuel - real time testing and analysis
Our technical engineers have worked with the environmental technologies centre
(ETC) at the University of Nottingham and rapid analysis experts Calibre Control
to develop a state of the art, real time analysis tool. Standard procedures involve
waiting days for the results of external laboratory tests, but our unique, in-house
system means we can test biodiesel and its intermediates on a continuous basis
via computer analysis.
This unique Phoenix technology is based on a Perten Near-Infrared (NIR) analyser
traditionally used to test the quality of cereal crops and monitor fermentation
broths. Using NEar infrared spectroscopy the analyser produces a measurement
of absorption of reflected near-infrared light measured at a molecular level.
The resulting absorption curve can then be compared to calibration data using
multivariate analysis techniques to both identify and quantify specific compounds
in the sample. In terms of biodiesel production, we can analyse for ester, moisture,
glycerol, methanol and FFA content, as well as viscosity and density in a matter
of seconds, not days.
Investing in Research and Technology
We are involved in research projects with both Nottingham University and Surrey
University, looking into new uses for two of our co-products; glycerol and chaff:
Glycerol is the main co-product of biodiesel production. We are working to
develop a pure version and also to find uses for the crude Glycerol that comes
straight off our production process.
Chaff is the term used to describe the small quantities of organic matter found
in rapeseed as we bring it in from the fields. This includes bits of the rapeseed
plant, as well as broken seeds. The University of Surrey are investigating possible
applications for this co-product that would otherwise be simply by ploughed back
into the land.
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