Canola biodiesel is produced by extracting rapeseed extract. The reason rapeseed extract is called canola comes from the condensed phrase Canadian oilseed low acid.
The word with obvious slang roots caught on with the popularity of this plant variety. Understanding the production of this rich biodiesel fuel source starts with understanding why rapeseed oil is chosen as biodiesel feedstock over other resources.
Rapeseed oil or canola produces more biodiesel per acre that soy. It is chosen as a biodiesel seed crop often due to its content forty three percent extractable oil. Soy only has eighteen percent.
That forty three percent is not a fixed number. The Canola Council of Canada expects the research put into oil extraction research to increase the percent of extractable oil by one point two percent per seed in the next five years.
Canola biodiesel reduces HC and CO better than other sources according to research done for the State of Washington and Idaho that focuses on honing canola growing practices.
The seeds are sown, then harvested from fourteen million acres in Canada alone. On farms within the United States, in regions like Indiana, winter canola has been suggested as the feeder crop of choice form September through June, and soy as the crop for June to September. And in Washington and Idaho canola is suggested as a winter crop alone.
Then these seeds are crushed into meal.
The oil is secreted from the meal mash.
Converting this oil on small scale at home uses the same catalyst production process as it does in large medium and large-scale production.
It’s the same formula used by the fictional characters in the dark fairytale fight club to make soap, and homemade explosives. The actors actually only dramatically recited the process for making biodiesel.
For making batches of Canola biodiesel for commercial sale the industry mixes sodium hydroxide with methanol in an enclosed procedure together. And then mixing that methoxide with the canola or any other feedstock oil, in the same enclosed environment.
Draining off the glycerin, (that can be used to make soap), is followed up by washing the biodiesel, draining water and residue soap, drying, and filtering the batch through at least a ten micron filter.
For commercial producers of canola oil for biodiesel production the chlorophyll in Green Seed Canola has been a problem. The Chlorophyll content is so high that the oxidation stability is reduced, from the high level of photo oxidation.
Slight changes in the formula used as a catalyst have been used to overcome this obstacle. In 2007 research on a different balance of KOH as a catalyst solved the oxidation problem.
Canola oil is not only edible: Canola biodiesel production increases the amount of fuel that is created per acre. Canola places twentieth out of the top fifty resources based on gallons of oil per growing acre. Canola is also in the triple digits at around one hundred twenty one gallons per acre.
Creating biodiesel from canola production cuts down on emissions of greenhouse gases. Canola biodiesel does this in some cases better than other biodiesel oil feedstock resources. The seed has potential to be an even stronger resource in the future as we learn to extract a greater percentage of oil from each seed that will ad up as more gallons per acre of environmentally sensible fuel.
Further Reading:
BE Bioenergy: Biodiesel from Canola Oil
