Biomass Project Research Center, Hiroshima University, and HOSTY Association are co-organizing the Hiroshima University Biomass Evening Seminar. This seminar covers topics from the fundamentals of biomass to the latest information so that it can contribute the activities on biomass in this district. The 29th seminar will be held as follows. Please join.

• Date & Time: Wed.4 Mar., 2015 16:20-17:50

• Place: Engineering 110 Lecture Room, Higashi-Hiroshima Campus, Hiroshima University

＜Program＞

• Commentary: Yukihiko MATSUMURA
  
  Professor, Institute of Engineering, Hiroshima University

• Lecture: Obie FAROBIE
  
  D3 Student,Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University

“BIODIESEL PRODUCTION USING SUPERCRITICAL TERT-BUTYL METHYL ETHER (MTBE) AND ALCOHOLS”

Since biodiesel production increases rapidly in recent years,the overproduction of the main by-product glycerol, obtaining approximately 10% is unavoidable, leading to the significant decrease of price in the market. To circumvent this problem, biodiesel production without generating glycerol as well as without producing waste water is needed. Thus, a new approach of catalyst-free biodiesel production under supercritical MTBE conditions was proposed in this study. Experimental investigations were carried out in a temperature range of 200-500 oC under a pressure of 10 MPa and a fixed oil-to-MTBE molar ratio of 1:40 over 3-15 min. MTBE could react with triglyceride under supercritical conditions, generating fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and glycerol tert-butyl ether (GTBE). The FAME yield increased with temperature from 200 to 400 oC , but it decreased above 400 oC due to thermal decomposition. The highest biodiesel yield (0.94) was obtained at 400 oC in the short reaction time of 12 min under a pressure of 10 MPa and an oil-to-MTBE molar ratio of 1:40. Considering that supercritical conditions require elevated temperatures and high pressures, large amounts of heat must be added. To recover the heat efficiently, a novel spiral reactor was proposed in this study. The results revealed that the spiral reactor employed in this study was not only as effective as conventional reactor in terms of transesterification reactor but also superior in terms of heat recovery. The quantitative analysis of the heat recovery efficiency was 85.5%. Thus, it was concluded that spiral reactor is a good candidate of reactor for biodiesel production under supercritical conditions.

• Lecture: Ryunosuke MATSUMOTO
  
  M2 Student,Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University

“Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Kelp without Drying Process”

Generally speaking, there is no need of drying process for biomass, especially marine biomass which has much water inside the body. Before conducting experiment, we were sure to treat the drying process for kelp because of getting the correct yield in our previous study. However, the drying process has possibility to decompose the methane substrate such as mannitol. In this study, we compared the data of raw and dried kelp in hydrothermal pretreatment. Mannitol was recovered from raw and dried kelp in a similar manner.

• Lecture: Yumiko MATSUNAMI
  
  B4 Student, Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University

“Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation by using yeast precultured at high temperature and in the presence of inhibitor”

In simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), conversion efficiency of glucose in Saccharomyces cerevisiae decrease at high temperature and in the presence of fermentation inhibitor. It has been found that yeast, which precultured at high temperature and in the presence of fermentation inhibitor, became possible to grow at these conditions. Therefore, we conducted SSF using yeast which precultured at 35 oC and added 5-HMF as fermentation inhibitor. After SSF, we analyzed each sample and evaluated glucose, ethanol concentration.

• Chair: Thachanan SAMANMULYA
  
  Assistant Professor, Institute of Engineering, Hiroshima University

[Inquiries about this article]



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