Glycerine from vegetable oils as a binding agent during pelleting of biofuels

During transesterification of vegetable oils, animal fat and used frying oil, glycerine is produced as a by-product. It is important for the profitability of the transesterification process that the glycerine by-product can be sold for the best possible price. Since glycerine has been shown to work well as a binding agent in the manufacturing of feed pellets, it will probably also work well in the manufacturing of fuel pellets.

The objective of this project was to determine suitable admixture amounts of raw glycerine for fuel pelleting through empirical experiments. This is necessary in order to produce pellets of sufficient strength and to ensure that raw glycerine, which like the other residues from transesterification is hygroscopic, does not have a negative influence on the fuel combustion properties.