The XVth international scientific conference 'TEHNOMUS', Date: 2009/05/08 - 2009/05/09, Location: Succeava (Romania)

Publication date: 2009-05-01

Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on New Technologies and Products in Machine Manufacturing and Technology

Author:

De Coninck, Maarten
Merckx, Dirk ; Van Hecke, Renaat ; Christiaen, Hannes ; Deprez, Koen

Abstract:

During the last decennia the use of bio fuels has become a hot item in environmental discussions on nearly every social level. In 2010 5,75% of the transportation fuels has to come from biological origin in accordance with a European directive (2003/30/EG). This results in a boost of the biodiesel- and bio-ethanolindustry in Belgium. As an alternative for biodiesel also pure vegetable oils can be used as a transportation fuel. In most cases this will be rapeseed oil used in diesel engines. Also Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the well known diesel engine, originally had the idea to build an engine running on a fuel which could be produced by the farmers themselves. This could make them independent from all other external sources. The evolution of the diesel engine turned out in the opposite way. Inspired by this idea several organizations and research centers are doing research to the local, decentralized production of PPO by the farmers themselves. One of the biggest problems with this kind of pressing is to meet the quality specifications as given in the prestandard DIN51605. It’s known that some of these specifications could be influenced by the pressing: P content increases with higher pressure in the press (Remmele, 2007), total contamination is partly influenced by the pressing… . This article deals with the mechanical pressing of rapeseed to oil with a focus on press efficiency and filtration.