FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 (39 of 1970) & THE PATENT RULES, 2003
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10; rule 13)
AN INTEGRATED PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF FATTY ACID METHYL ESTER (BIODIESEL)"
RELIANCE LIFE SCIENCES PVT.LTD
an Indian Company having its Registered Office at
Chitrakoot, 2nd Floor,
Shree Ram Mills Compound,
Ganpath Rao Kadam Marg,
Worli.Mumbai-400 013,
Maharashtra, India.
The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is performed:-
1

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
The present invention relates to a process for the production of biodiesel, a renewable fuel for diesel engines, which is made from fats and oils, using modularly expandable unit. The present invention in particular relates to a cost effective process that provides steps for recycling the waste material, extracting maximum oil from oil bearing seeds, pretreating oil and separating fatty acid while at the same time maintaining the quality of the fatty acid esters with respect to international standards. The present invention covers biodiesel production using a modularly expandable unit which can be easily scalable to very large size easily installed in addition to various modularly expandable unit designed particulary to facilitate the processing of various feedstocks ranging from seeds, seed cake, crude oil, acid oil, spent bleaching earth to soap stock.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Biodiesel is a nontoxic and biodegradable substitute and supplement for petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is a name of variety of alkyl-based ester made from the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel is water immiscible yellow liquid with a high boiling point and low vapor pressure. Since the viscosity of the biodiesel is similar to petroleum diesel, it is used as an additive in formulation of diesel to increase the lubricity of the fuel. Biodiesel being biodegradable and non-toxic, produces significantly fewer emissions than petroleum-based diesel when burned.
Conventially the production of biodiesel from animal or vegetable oils involves replacing glycerol with a short chain alcohol such as methanol or ethanol in a step known as transesterification.
A reaction scheme is as follows:
Triglyceride + methanol ► Glycerol + Esters (Biodiesel)
Animal and plant fats and oils are typically made of triglycerides which are esters of free fatty acids with the trihydric alcohol, glycerol. In the transesterification, the alcohol is deprotonated with a base to make it a stronger nucleophile. Commonly, ethanol or
2

methanol is used. Typically the reaction proceeds very slowly. Hence heat as well as acid or base is used as a catalyst to drive the reaction forward.
Almost all biodiesel is produced using the base-catalyzed technique as it is the most economical process requiring only low temperatures and pressures and producing over 98% conversion yield (provided the starting oil is low in moisture and free fatty acids).
Normally in the trans esterification process, the triglyceride is reacted with alcohol in the presence of a strong alkaline catalyst selected from sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium methoxide or sodium silicate. The alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form the monoalkyl ester (biodiesel) and crude glycerol.As the reaction is reversible there is a need to add the alcohol in excess to drive the reaction forward to ensure complete conversion.
Conventionally the reaction is carried out at a temperature just above the boiling temperature of the alcohol. The workup of the reaction involves the separation of the glycerin and the biodiesel phase by gravity or by centrifuging.
After the separation of the two phases the excess alcohol in each phase is removed with a flash evaporation or distillation. The glycerol or glycerin by - product contains unused catalyst and soaps that are neutralised with an acid and sent to storage as crude glycerin and then after removal of water and alcohol by evaporation, the pure glycerol or glycerin is obtained.
The biodiesel separated from the glycerol is sometime purified by gentle weashing with warm water to remove residual catalyst or soaps, dried and sent to storage.
The common international standard for biodiesel is EN 14214. There are standards for three different varieties of biodiesel, which are made of different oils:
• RME (rapeseed methyl ester, according to DIN E 51606)
• PME (vegetable methyl ester, purely vegetable products, according to DIN E 51606) FME (fat methyl ester, vegetable and animal products, according to DIN V 51606)
3

The standards ensure that the following important factors in the fuel production process are satisfied with respect to the removal of glycerin and alcohol generated during the reaction, further ensures absence of catalysts, free fatty acids and high sulfur content.
Biodiesel can be used in pure form (B100) or may be blended with petroleum diesel at any concentration in most modern diesel engines.
Biodiesel can be distributed using today's infrastructure, and its use and production are increasing rapidly. Conventional biodiesel production systems are based upon large, fixed base plants which require expensive capitalization and on site construction. Fuel stations are beginning to make biodiesel available to consumers, and a growing number of transport fleets use it as an additive in their fuel. The present invention covers biodiesel production using a modularly expandable and easily scalable to large size units to ease its installation, in addition to various design particulars to facilitate the processing of various feedstocks.
The replacement of biodiesel to petrodiesel is gaining importance due to various factors not limited to economies of scale, the rising cost of petroleum and government tax subsidies. Biodiesel is nearly carbon-neutral, meaning it contributes almost zero emissions to global warming. Biodiesel provides substantial reductions in carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and particulate emissions from diesel engines. While the carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons from diesels are already very low compared with gasoline engines, biodiesel reduces them further. Particulate emissions, especially the black soot portion, are greatly reduced with biodiesel. Unfortunately, most emissions tests have shown a slight increase in oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions with biodiesel. This increase in NOx can be eliminated with a small adjustment to the engine's injection timing while still retaining a particulate decrease. Presently biodiesel is blend with petro diesel in various proportinos and used as blended fuel in vehicles. Further biodiesel usage has been universally recognized as the fastest method to reduce C02 and carcinogenic particulate emissions. Although biodiesel can be produced from any triglyceride, the popular fats and vegetable oils most commonly used worldwide is soybean oil. Other vegetable oils, such as corn, cottonseed, canola (rape seed), flax,
4

sunflower and peanut, also are used. These seed oils generally are more expensive than soybean oil. In India there is a severe short supply of these edible oils. The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels in course of time has gained importance as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time.
Presently substantial quantity of these edible oils are imported from various countries and are used for food applications. With this in view and self sustain non edible seed oils are being promoted for growth. Various types of non edible oil bearing trees like Jatropha Curcus etc is being cultivated in large scale. The oil from this is proposed to be used for biodiesel production. It is imperative therefore to develop a processing scheme that extracts maximum amount of biodiesel from these non edible seeds.
Animal-derived products such as tallow, choice white grease (lard), poultry fat and yellow grease are also triglycerides and are used as a biodiesel feedstock. These products, when compared to plant-derived oils, often offer an economical advantage as a feedstock. There is also some indication that these sources, which are high in saturated fats, produce less nitrous oxides compared to plant oils. However, the research on the subject matter is still ongoing.
The third main source of triglycerides is recycled oil and grease that are usually obtained from restaurants and food processing plants. Although more pre-treatment is required for these feedstocks as compared to virgin vegetable oils. While the use of a recycled product such as used cooking oil is environmentally friendly as it resolves waste disposal problems, it also is economically a better feedstock.
Although various approaches are being adopted in order to provide a economically feasible process of production of biodiesel the inductry has still not been successful in developing a biodiesel feul meeting with the quality requirements.
WO/2006/043281 describes a process of chemical neutralization of fatty acid and sending that as a by-product for soap making. It is well known that there is considerable loss both in terms of fatty acid and oil carry over by this method thus restricting the yield and increasing the processing cost of oil. Also the oil expelling process is energy intensive
5

and leaves behind over 8% oil in seed cake. These results in increased cost of oil extracted from the process.
WO Patent No 2006/016492 describes a process of degumming and transesterification of oil to produce esters. The disadvantage of carrying forward a simple degummed oil is allowing heavy metals and few finely suspended matter forward producing a bio diesel that may require high dosage of stabilizers to preserve oxidation stability.
USA Patent No 6399800 suggests esterification as a process to convert fatty acid. This involves using special reactors, which could be capital intensive. The process is complex to eliminate moisture and complete the reaction. This impacts processing cost of esters (bio diesel).
USA Patent No 20050080279 give a different way of handling oil with free fatty acid content. The invention requires that entire quantity to the process, which requires larger equipment size controlled conditions, and energy intensive process to obtain the right yield.
USA Patent Nos 7087771 and 6822105 addresses primarily the soap stock produced as by product after transesterification for processing and does not explain forward or backward integration with the entire sequence of operation from seed to bio diesel.
USA Patent No 6013817 describes process where in the entire oil and FFA are transesterified resulting in a higher through put, catalyst consumption and reprocessing the soap stock formed of entire fatty acid back to glycerides. This again requires time consuming lengthy process, larger equipment and higher processing cost due to multiple processing of same material.
USA Patent No 6,979,426 provides the systems and methods for producing biodiesel fuel
include a modular production unit incorporated onto a single platform or into a housing
" for ease of relocatability. The modular production unit preferably includes a mixing unit,
6

a reactor unit, a separation unit, a distillation unit, and a filtering unit, all incorporated onto or into a self-contained platform or housing that is able to be easily relocated. In a second aspect, the modular production unit is combined with additional fixed and/or relocatable components to provide a biodiesel processing plant. In a third aspect, a raw materials processing system and method includes a roller barrel adapted for recovery, transportation, and introduction of recycled oil feedstock into a biodiesel manufacturing process. The raw materials processing system preferably includes a hot box for filtering and heating the raw recycled oil feedstock. Limitation of this is plant is that it does not address the fatty acid /soap stock recycled to increase yield of biodiesel. The processing costs could be high.
The PCT publication WO 1999/026913 relates to a method and an equipment for producing fatty acid methyl ester, more particularly diesel fuel for vehicles, wherein said method allows for a rational production in economical equipment, preferably in large-scale industrial equipment. However this patent application does not deal with an integrated plant starting with Oil bearing seeds as feed stock.
The PCT application WO 2003/022961 relates to a process and apparatus for producing biodiesel wherein pecialized reaction tanks with vertical rotating feed tubes having separators and inlet and outlet openings are used. The process and apparatus include minimal plant space; minimal on-site feedstock; minimal on-site storage; However there is no integration of seed processing to this resulting in lower overall seed to biodiesel conversion.
US patent application 20060260184 includes a method and apparatus for the production of biodiesel fuel which includes a compact processor including a vapor recovery system for removing excess alcohols from the fuel and an additional a chemical cleaner. However the process does not address the recycling of by products/waste to increase yield and reduce wastes.
Recently the ultrasonic reactors have been employed to speed up the reaction time, and has employed reduced catalysts and better separation of the phases. The economics of
7

using ultrasonic probes to speed up reaction is still facing stiff resistance due to high costs.
Hence looking to the dire need of the hour, the scientists of the present invention have developed a process of production of emission free and a low cost biodiesel, a renewable fuel for diesel engines, which is made from fats and oils, using modularly expandable unit.. The inventors have been successful in developing a process for production of biodiesel on a large scale basis having industrial applications In the present invention there is s maximum recovery of biodiesel from the waste products generated in the process. The present invention provides a process of extracting triglycerides from multiple feedstocks The present invention covers biodiesel production using a modularly expandable unit which can be easily scalable to very large size easily installed in addition to various modularly expandable unit designed particulary to facilitate the processing of \ various feedstocks ranging from seeds, seed cake, crude oil, acid oil, spent bleaching earth to soap stock.. The units of the present invention are designed in the manner that it can be expanded as industrially needed for large scale production of biodiesel.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process for preparation of emission
free low cost biodiesel
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process, which is suitable for multiple
feedstock
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process, which can extract maximum
amount of triglyceride from seeds or seed cake.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process, which is industrially feasible.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process, which will enable recycling
of the waste material generated in process.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process, which is safe for the
environment.
It is the object of the present invention to provide high yields of the biodiesel.
8

It is the object of the present invention to provide biodiesel that meets standards of
international quality.
It is the object of the present invention to provide biodiesel production using a modularly
expandable unit to ease its installation and, in addition to various design particulars to
facilitate the processing of various feedstocks.
It is the object of the present invention to design expandable units in the manner that it
can be relocated as industrially needed for large scale production of biodiesel.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a process, which will yield biodiesel at
a reasonable price.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present disclosure provides an integrated process of obtaining low cost emission free biodiesel that is adaptable to multiple feedstocks at different stages and achieves a high yield of fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel).
In one embodiment the present invention provides a process that is suitable for multiple feedstock. In one preferred the embodiment the present invention focuses on Jatropha oil (triglycerides) extracted from seeds. The oil is preferably extracted by expansion and solvent extraction.
In one embodiment the present invention provides a process that refines the oil obtained from various sources so that it is free from coloring matter, free fatty acid and heavy metals and sediments. The present invention employs process such as degumming, bleaching and physical refining of the oil.
In one embodiment the present invention provides a process for recycling of the wastes to obtain maximum yield of the oil (triglycerides). In one preferred embodiment the present invention provides process for recycling the spent bleaching earth by solvent extraction to recover remaining oil.
In one embodiment the present invention provides an efficient process for transesterification to obtain high yields of fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel). In one
9

preferred embodiment the present invention provides a process for complete conversion of the triglycerides (oil) to fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel) by appropriate recycling of the soap stock, trapped esters and unconverted oil back to stream.
In one embodiment the present invention provides a process for converting fatty acids and other fatty acid distillates to obtain maximum yield of the oil (triglycerides). In one preferred embodiment the present invention provides process for converting the fatty acids by glycerolysis to glycerides (Oil) for conversion to fatty acid methyl esters.
In one embodiment the present invention provides a biodiesel production modularly expandable unit which can be easily scalable to very large size easily installed in addition to various modularly expandable unit designed particulary to facilitate the processing of various feedstocks ranging from seeds, seed cake, crude oil, acid oil, spent bleaching earth to soap stock.
In one embodiment the present invention provides a biodiesel production modularly
expandable unit with versatile facilities consisting of expandable solvent extraction plant,
oil pre-treatment unit, physical refining unit, fatty acid conversion unit and
transesterification unit.
In one embodiment the present invention provides expandable units designed in the
manner that it can be relocated as industrially needed for large scale production of
biodiesel.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The following drawings form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present disclosure, the inventions of which can be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein.
Fig.l: Illustrates the schematic process of the integrated biodiesel process. Fig. 2: Multi Feed stock entry points in the process.
10

Fig. 3: Schematic oil extraction process by Oil Expander.
Fig. 4: Schematic depiction of a Solvent extraction plant to expel oil from seed cake and
spent bleaching earth.
Fig. 5: Oil refining process comprising of de gumming and bleaching section.
Fig. 6: Physical refining process of bleached oil.
Fig. 7: Schematic process of conversion of waste oils rich in Fatty acid to Glycerides.
Fig. 8: Schematic of transestrification process to convert oil to Fatty Acid Methyl Ester
(biodiesel).
Fig. 9: Schematic of glycerin purification process
Fig. 10: Schematic of methanol recovery process..
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Defintions:
The term "Biodiesel" as used herein refers to Fatty Acid Methyl Ester produced by processing various feed stocks. The proposed process is depicted by typical integrated process schematic diagram Fig. 1.
The term "feedstock" as used herein refers to ranging from non edible seeds like Jatropha curcus etc., waste oils containing free fatty acid in oil greater than required for food processing, other crude oils, acid oils generated from oil refineries, spent bleaching earth discarded by various edible oil refineries and soap stocks obtained from chemical neutralization of edible oil. Refer Fig. 2: for details of feed stock and its entry point in the process.
The term " yield of biodiesel" as used herein refers to the quantity of biodiesel produced from the quantity of oil/fatty acid in the input.
The present invention thus provides a low cost process of production of biodiesel using modularly expandable unit., yielding maximum fatty acid methyl esters. The biodiesel thus produced by the present invention meets with the international quality standards.
11

The present invention relates to the production of ester from a multi feed stock. The invention in particular provides a process for extraction of crude oil from hon edible seeds such as Jatropha curcas and the like; conversion to free fatty acid and then esterification.
The process of the present invention provides measures for maximum oil extraction, pretreatment of the oil, processing the waste generated such as spent bleaching earth and recycling the free fatty acid obtained after physical neutralization of soap stock to extract more glycerides.
The steps involved in the present invention is simplified as herein:
1. Pretreatment of the seed.
2. Extraction of the oil (triglycerides) by expelling.
3. Recovery of the oil from the oil cake by solvent extraction.
4. Pretreatment of the oils obtained in step 2 and 3.
5. Refining the oil
6. Glycerolysis
7. Transesterification
8. Recovery of triglycerides from the soap stock
9. Glycerol recovery.
10. Methanol recovery.
11. Analysis.
The initial step involves the treatment of the seeds wherein the seeds are cleaned "to remove the extraneous matter and cracked. The cracked seeds are then cooked with steam for softening.
The softened seeds are then passed though oil expander at high pressure to expel some oil from the seeds.
The left over seed cake is then sent to extraction plant wherein the residual oil is removed by hexane solvent extraction process.
12

All the oil (triglycerides) i.e the oil from the expeller and the oil from the oil cake/spent earth from solvent extraction plant is degummed and bleached before sending for physical refining of oil.
The pretreated oil is thus refined by distillation. Free fatty acid collected is sent for glycerolysis. The free fatty acid is converted to glycerides in this section.
The refined oil (triglycerides) along with glycerides is thus transesterified with methanol in a basic medium of sodium hydroxide in presence of sodium methoxide as a catalyst. The fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel) is separated by centrifugation.
The glycerine and the methanol generated in the reaction is then sent to purification for recovery.
The fatty acid methyl ester (biodiesel) produced according to the process outlined would produce biodiesel as per international quality standards prescribed in EN: 14214 and ASTMD6751.
The biodiesel thus obtained yields nearly as much as the oil content in the Jatropha seed. It is about 1.4% more than oil content in seed. This excess yield would largely depend on the free fatty acid content in the oil extracted from seeds.
The following units are included in the process.
1. Seed pretreatment unit/ oil expander
2. Solvent extraction unit with facility of solvent recovery
3. Pretreatment of oil unit
4. Oil refining unit
5. Glycerolysis and transesterification unit
6. Recovery units
These units are easily expandable and installed
13

The following examples are included to demonstrate preferred embodiments of the invention. It should be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the techniques disclosed in the examples which follow represent techniques discovered by the inventor to function well in the practice of the invention, and thus can be considered to constitute preferred modes for its practice. However, those of skill in the art should, in light of the present disclosure, appreciate that many changes can be made in the specific embodiments which are disclosed and still obtain a like or similar result without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
EXAMPLE 1 : Seed Pretreatment and oil Expelling Section:
Jatropha seeds from storage shed are fed to seed cleaner by bucket elevators. Here all foreign particles are removed from the seeds. These are then fed to seed cracke| where corrugated rolls crack Jatropha seeds into required size. These cracked seeds are then cooked in a cooker with steam for easy and efficient extraction of oil. Cooked seeds are then passed through oil expander at high pressure to expel some oil from seeds. The oil is sent to oil pretreatment section whereas seed oil cake is sent to solvent extraction section. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig.3
EXAMPLE 2: Solvent Extraction and Solvent Recovery System:
The Oil cake from Oil expander and/or spent bleaching earth from refining section is passed through Cake Breaker and Roller Mill before conveying it continuous extractor where the leftover oil in cake is extracted with solvent Hexane. Cake moves on a bed and solvent is sprayed on it. The mass is then sent to Desolventiser Toaster via solvent tight conveyor. Here Deoiled cake separates and is discharged out from the bottom for bagging. The oil and solvent in form of vapors goes from the top through various heat recovery exchangers and then is flashed in a flasher cum separator where oil is recovered from the bottom. This oil is passed through two strippers to remove residual hexane and the hexane free oil is then sent to oil pretreatment section after series of coolers. The hexane vapors are condensed through series of surface condensers and finally the left over vapors are absorbed in vapor absorber. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 4.
14

EXAMPLE 3: Pretreatment of Oil:
Oil from Oil expellers and Solvent Extraction needs to be treated before further processing. The main pretreatments done in this section is Degumming and bleaching. The Raw oil is mixed with acid in a acid reactor. This is followed by caustic addition and water washing. Then the gums are removed in Gums separator. The spent water is sent for waste water treatment. The degummed oil is then sent to a continuous bleacher where bleaching earth is added. The outlet is passed through pressure leaf filters to separate out spent bleaching earth from bleached oil. This bleached oil is sent to oil refining section. The spent bleaching earth is returned back to solvent extraction plant for removing oil. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 5.
EXAMPLE 4: Refining of Oil
The pretreated Oil after series of heat recovery exchangers is fed to deareator for deareation and moisture removal. The Deareated oil is then fed to pre distiller to distill out fatty acids before sending it to deodorizer. The pre-distiller and deodorizer are operated under vacuum created by steam ejectors. The deodorizer bottoms are cooled and sent to transesterification section and the overhead vapors of pre-distiller and deodorizer are condensed in vapor scrubber and the condensate fatty acids are sent to Glycerolysis Section. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 6.
EXAMPLE 5: Glycerolysis:
In this the Fatty acids/soap stock recycled after transesterification process are reacted with GIycerin(both crude and refined from the process) in presence of a catalyst. The reaction is carried out at 121 to 185 deg C under high Vacuum with intense agitation. The vapors are condensed. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 7.
EXAMPLE 6: Transesterification
In this section triglycerides from refining section and the glycerified oil( Fatty acid glycerides) from Glycerolysis are mixed with methanol and fed to the first reactor. Here Sodium Methoxide is also added which acts as a catalyst. The reactor is maintained under
15

vacuum by steam ejectors and the reaction temperature is maintained by steam heating coils. The reactor effluent is sent to settler where the glycerin produced is removed from the bottom and the methyl esters along with unreacted methanol and Oil is fed to second reactor for reaction completion. The second reactor effluents are sent to second settler. The settler bottom are sent to raw glycerin storage tanks from where it will be sent to methanol recovery. Settler overheads are methyl esters with methanol. This stream is heated and flashed to remove methanol in form of vapors. The methanol is condensed and recirculated and the bottom methyl ester is washed with water and then centrifuged to remove soap stocks. The pure methyl ester is the sent to neutralizer where suitable acid addition is done if required. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 8.
EXAMPLE 7: Glycerin Purification:
Raw Glycerin from Settling Tank 1 and 2 bottom in Transesterification section is heated and flashed in flashed drum. The methanol evaporated is sent to Methanol rectification Section. The glycerin from flash drum is mixed with HC1 to maintain pH and fed to split reactor. The reactor effluent is sent to separator where glycerin is separated from fatty acids. These fatty acids are sent to glycerolysis and the glycerin along with methanol and water is neutralized with caustic. This is then sent to flash distillation column where methanol is flashed and sent to methanol rectification section and purified glycerin is obtained at the bottom. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 9.
EXAMPLE 8: Methanol recovery: In this section the methanol from glycerin purification section and Transesterification section is distilled in a distillation column j Pure methanol vapors are condensed at the top using series of condensers. This stream is recycled to transesterification section. The column bottom is water with methanol less than 0.5% w/w. This stream after cooling is sent to effluent treatment section. The process schematic of the above description is depicted in Fig. 10.
EXAMPLE 9: Analysis of the biodiesel and its yield calculation.
16

The Fatty acid methyl ester (Biodiesel) produced from this process was found confirm to the specifications of prescribed by both the standards- EN: 14214 and ASTM D 6751.
The mass balance up to biodiesel production is as given below:

S.No Description Unit Quantity Remarks
1 Oil Content in Jatropha Seed % 30
2 Jatropha Seed quantity Kg 3330
3 Oil extracted in Expander stage Kg 590
4 Seed oil cake taken to solvent extraction Kg 2740
5 Input to solvent extraction section, Include recycle of spent earth Kg 2765 Waste recycle
6 Solvent extracted oil Kg 413
7 De oiled cake Kg 2352
8 Hexane consumption in Solvent extraction Lit 4.5
9 Crude oil fed to refinery Kg 1003
10 Bleaching earth used Kg 20
11 Fatty acid recovered - physical refinery Kg 148
12 Refined oil taken directly for biodiesel Kg 847
13 Crude Glycerol recycled to glycerolysis Kg 25 Waste recycle
14 Pure glycerol taken to glycerolysis. Kg 12
15 Fatty acid methyl ester (biodiesel). Kg 1014
16 Pure Glycerol, 82-85% Kg 89
17 Yield of biodiesel, Biodiesel: oil content in seed. Ratio 1.015
Thus, while we have described fundamental novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details
17

Thus, while we have described fundamental novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details may be possible without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps, which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results, are within the scope of the invention.
Dated this &) day of M*vt^,2007
For Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd
K. V. Stit5ramaniam President

ABSTRACT
The present invention relates to the production of ester from a multi feed stock. The invention in particular provides a process extraction of crude oil from non edible seeds such as Jatropha curcas and the like; conversion to free fatty acid and then esterification. The process of the present invention provides measures for maximum oil extraction, pretreatment of the oil, processing the waste generated such as spent bleaching earth and recycling the free fatty acid obtained after physical neutralization, recycling of soap stock to extract more glycerides. The present invention thus provides a cost effective process, which also yields maximum fatty acid methyl esters that meets the international quality standards. The present invention also covers biodiesel production using a modularly expandable unit which can be easily scalable to very large size easily installed in addition to various modularly expandable unit designed particulary to facilitate the processing of various feedstocks ranging from seeds, seed cake, crude oil, acid oil, spent bleaching earth to soap stock.
19