A Florida-based biodiesel technology developer formed in 2006 has released a new product that can lower methanol requirements by up to 5 percent. Florida Biodiesel Inc., a company that works with both consumer and commercial biodiesel operators, has been developing the Cyclonic Mixer over the past year. &ldquo;The Mixer is a device that is made to shear the catalyst and the feedstock,&rdquo; said Bill Gehrs, president of Florida Biodiesel, &ldquo;giving a more complete mixing, which is able to reduce the amount of methanol used.&rdquo; The mixer, Gehrs said, can save the plant operator between 2 to 5 percent in methanol costs.
Described by Gehrs as a &ldquo;passive&rdquo; device, the mixer has been used in other consumer and commercial systems and the Florida Biodiesel version can be scaled to work in a 60 gallon system all the way up to a 2.3 MMgy facility. &ldquo;It has no moving parts. The high shear mixer is encased in a pipe and when the feedstock and the catalyst are moved through the multi-veined system in the mixer,&rdquo; Gehrs explained, &ldquo;it creates a high shearing action,&rdquo; that ultimately does a better job of mixing.
While Florida Biodiesel does not operate its own biodiesel production facility, the company still has a 187-dealer network that supplies other add-on pieces. The company has developed a safety external heat exchanger that heats up feedstock to the required temperature for transesterification, a methanol recovery system that Gehrs said recovers the pressurized methanol from the reactor tank itself making the B500 system, a commercial unit designed to produce 400-gallon batches of biodiesel every 60 minutes, a completely closed-loop system.
&ldquo;In our own plants that we sell,&rdquo; Gehrs said, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve been able to reduce the amount of methanol used from the normal 20-plus percent to complete the reaction down to 18 percent.&rdquo; As for those the Cyclonic Mixer would be best suited for outside of the normal customers Florida Biodiesel already serves, Gehrs said, &ldquo;Any plant operator that would like to reduce their methanol expenses&rdquo; would benefit.

Florida Biodiesel Inc. provides technology like the Cyclonic Mixer through a 187 dealer network spread throughout the U.S. 

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This version of the Cyclonic mixer is used with Florida Biodiesel's B-500 production model. The shears help to mix the fluids and the catalysts more thoroughly. 

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A Florida-based biodiesel technology developer formed in 2006 has released a new product that can lower methanol requirements by up to 5 percent. Florida Biodiesel Inc. has been developing the Cyclonic Mixer over the past year. 

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New methanol reduction device now available