Process for the conversion of free fatty acids to glycerol esters and production of novel catalyst systems

A method for reducing the free fatty acid (FFA) of any FFA containing oil including an animal derived oil, seed derived oil, paper processing derived oil, tall oil or any other FFA containing oil to less than approximately 1% FFA from an oil that may contain from about 2% to 100% FFA, the method comprising the steps of:

• producing an engineered heterogeneous catalyst by the following steps;
• a) by weight of total, combining approximately 90.0% of a colloidal silica, approximately 6.8% zinc oxide powder and approximately 2.3% copper oxide powder and mixing to form a slurry;
• b) placing in oven and heating at a temperature of approximately 200 C until a liquid free product is formed;
• c) removing from oven, sizing product to approximately 5 to 35 mesh as required;
• d) placing product in oven and calcining at approximately 400 C;
• placing the catalyst in a fixed bead multiple reactor;
• in a heating vessel, combining a mixture of the feedstock oil and crude glycerin wherein the glycerin is approximately 1.2% times the amount of the weight of FFA in the feedstock oil;
• heating the combined mixture to approximately at least 385 F for driving off moisture, said moisture to become less than about 0.25% of the resultant mixture;
• pumping the resultant mixture across the catalyst bed in the fixed bead multiple reactor thereby producing an FFA reduced oil;
• and
• processing the FFA reduced oil through a centrifuge or other device to remove excess glycerin.

A method for reducing the free fatty acid (FFA) of a feedstock oil containing approximately 2% to 100% FFA, the method comprising

• providing a heterogeneous calcined catalyst comprising approximately 1% to 95% colloidal silica, approximately 1% to 25% zinc oxide powder and approximately 0% to 5% copper oxide;
• placing the catalyst in a fixed bead multiple reactor;
• in a heating vessel, combining a mixture of the feedstock oil and crude glycerin wherein the glycerin is approximately 1.2% times the amount of the weight of FFA in the feedstock oil and wherein the FFA is approximately 0.1% to 75% by weight;
• heating the combined mixture to approximately at least 385 F for driving off moisture, said moisture to become less than about 0.25% of the resultant mixture;
• pumping the resultant mixture across the catalyst bed in the fixed bead multiple reactor thereby producing an FFA reduced oil;
• and
• removing excess glycerin from the FFA reduced oil.