The Mcgyan process turns most oils to biodiesel in seconds
The Mcgyan biodiesel process can make either animal or plant oils into biodiesel in seconds whereas most other processes take much longer and are limited in the feedstock that can be used. The great thing about this process is that as long as you keep the oil coming, the biodiesel will keep on flowing almost simultaneously and there is very little if any waste that must be disposed of afterward.
The Mcgyan process is named after the process inventors, McNeff, Gyberg and Yan and is the process used at Ever Cat Fuels, a company co-founded by McNeff. McNeff’s other company SarTec owns the patents for the process and reactor. The entire process and the reactor have a very small footprint which saves on equipment and building costs.
The inventors created a continuous reactor that takes alcohol, oil or tallow and turns them into biodiesel and an alcohol/glycerol mix. The excess alcohol is separated out and reused in the process and only a trace amount of Glycerol is left. Any feedstock that has not reacted is fed back through so 100 percent of the feedstock is used and no waste is created.
The reactor used in the process uses porous metal oxide microspheres as the process catalyst. The microspheres are “chemically and thermally stable” and don’t break down over time. The system does not require any acids or bases. The small reactor is heated to 300 degrees Celsius. The hot products are used to heat the cool reactants so the process is energy efficient.
After the alcohol and feedstock have made it through the reactor, they enter the EFAR (Easy Fatty Acid Removal) stage where the excess alcohol and the biodiesel are separated. The excess alcohol is reused in the process as previously stated and the biodiesel is ready to be shipped.
The process does not require food grade feedstock, like most conventional biodiesel processes, but can use any oil, tallow, or waste oil which reduces the cost considerably. A number of plant and animal feedstocks have been tested in the process and have proven to be easily converted by the system into biodiesel.
The feedstock sources approved so far are: rice oil, soy been oil, beef tallow, refined algae oil, lard, swine tallow, used soybean oil, yellow grease, brown grease, black oil, corn distillers oil, acidulated soap stock, free fatty acids from both plants and animals, walnut oil, sesame oil, olive oil, palm oil, almond oil, grape seed oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, canola oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, and coconut oil. Methanol, Ethanol, and propanol can all be used as the alcohol for the system.
According to Ever Cat Fuels the process benefits are:
1) Current waste products can be turned into fuel.
2) No use of strong acids or bases in the process.
3) Fast reaction times (seconds).
4) Cheap feedstocks such as waste grease and animal tallow as well as a variety of plant oils can be converted to biodiesel.
5) The metal oxide based catalyst is contained in a fixed bed reactor thereby eliminating the current need to continuously add catalyst to the reaction mixture thereby reducing the amount of waste produced.
6) Unwanted side reactions with free fatty acids producing soaps are eliminated, thereby reducing the amount of waste that must be disposed of properly.
7) Insensitive to free fatty acid and water content of the feedstocks.
8) Flexible feedstock; animal or plant sources of lipids can be used.
9) The catalyst does not “poison” over time.
The Mcgyan biodiesel process is simple and efficient compared to other biodiesel production methods. The process is also cleaner since it is able to use waste oils while producing no waste.
No matter how you look at the Mcgyan process looks to be the best choice for biodiesel refineries.
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