“The SRCA-1 Package Technology for Production of Biodiesel” Passed Technical Appraisal of Sinopec Corporation

On October 14, 2014 the project “The SRCA-1 package technology for production of biodiesel” jointly undertaken by the SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing and the SINOPEC’s Shijiazhuang Refining and Chemical Branch Company had passed the technical appraisal organized by the SINOPEC Science & Technical Division.

The research staffs after studying the rules on mutual solubility and reaction between methanol and oil and fats under sub-critical and supercritical conditions have developed a new process for manufacture of biodiesel via subcritical alcoholysis of oil and fats by methanol (SRCA-1). In the course of alcoholysis reaction the research staffs have discovered the good solubilization characteristics of reaction intermediates that can solve the mass transfer difficulty between methanol and oil and fats to optimize the reaction conditions.

The 2 kt/a SRCA-1 pilot unit at the SINOPEC’s Shijiazhuang Refining and Chemical Branch Company has implemented tests of several oil and fat feedstocks and the biodiesel yield reaches 92.7%—95.5%, which is on a par with the product yield achieved in the bench tests. The CNOOC New Energy (Hainan) Bio-energy & Chemical Co., Ltd. has established a 60 kt/a SRCA-1 production unit, which by using the acidified oil as the feedstock has been operating along the whole process scheme to deliver the biodiesel product meeting the GB/T20828—2007 standard. At a full load of this unit the biodiesel yield reaches 93.70% based on the amount of saponifiable matter. The SRCA-1 process has good adaptability to different feedstocks, featuring high product yield and low material consumption without using acidic or alkaline catalysts to achieve clean production that has reached an internationally advanced level.