Grant: Engage Plus Grants Program

Cellufuel Inc. has developed a proprietary process to produce diesel fuel from waste wood biomass. While the*product is derived from biomass sources, the fuel is not biodiesel, which by definition is an organic fatty acid*ester. Given that the product of Cellufuel Inc. is a synthetic diesel product and not biodiesel, it is not subject to*the problems associated with biodiesel such as corrosion, oil polymerization, and high viscosity. The quality of*diesel fuel is assessed by several quality metrics, particularly those prescribed by ASTM D975 for road going*diesel. Three of these metrics are the flashpoint, sulphur content, and total acid number (TAN). The diesel fuel*produced by Cellufuel Inc. meets the quality standards of ASTM D975 except for these three areas. During our*recently concluded NSERC Engage project we made significant progress in methods to reduce the TAN*through silica gel filtration followed by aqueous base extraction. This method has the additional benefit of*significantly improving the flashpoint, colour, and odour of the diesel product, all of which are qualities that*impact consumer confidence in a fuel and required improvement to achieve marketability. The proposed*research project will focus on optimizing the variable parameters of this new procedure. Cellufuel Inc. will be*incorporating this technology into their new pilot plant, but require a detailed study of parameters to ensure*proper construction and operation.