As part of a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Graduate School in renewable energy (European Graduate School for Sustainable Energy), Johannes Lercher team of the Department of Chemistry (Chemistry is the science that studies the composition and reactions of matter.) of the University (a university is an institution of higher education whose aim is the production of knowledge (research), its conservation and transmission (etudes. ..) Munich Technical has the point (Graphic) a catalyst (in chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that increases the speed of a chemical reaction is involved in the reaction but is not part of products or reactants and therefore does not appear in the equation for ...) to facilitate the production of biodiesel (biodiesel, or B100 biodiesel (B20, B5, B2, etc.) is a fuel made from vegetable oil or animal transformed by a chemical process called transesterification, in order to obtain FAME or VOEE. ... Biodiesel tent) from microalgae.

 

The biofuels (biofuels (or agrofuels) in the strict sense are liquid fuels produced from crops. Depending on the courses, we try to produce oil or alcohol by fermentation of sugars or ...) currently produced is made from molecules agricultural (soybeans, grains, sugar beets, rapeseed, or sunflower) that require not only large areas of arable, entering into competition with food production, but also a time (Time is a concept developed to represent the change in the world: the universe is never static, the component parts move, transform and evolve to the observer is man. If we consider the universe as a ...) to push (push is the name given to a street racing at the meeting.) important.  According to Lercher, micro-algae for their part have clear advantages in comparison, is their high speed (speed is a physical quantity which measures the evolution of a quantity over time.) reproduction but also their high levels of triglycerides.  Yet far from the refining of microalgae remained unsuccessful.

 

Either the fuel (a fuel is a fuel that powers an internal combustion engine. It converts the chemical energy of fuel into mechanical energy.) Product was not enough fluid (the fluid is fully deformable environments. are grouped under this name the gases are examples of fluids, and fluids, fluids that are not ...) at low temperature (the temperature of a system is an increasing function of the degree of thermal motion of particles, c ' is to say its thermal energy. It is defined by the balance transfer ...) because they are too rich in oxygen, or catalysts used were a source of possible contamination or were not sufficiently effective.

It is this second problem Lercher team looked to find a catalyst (in chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that increases the speed of a chemical reaction is involved in the reaction but it is part and the products or the reactants and therefore does not appear in the equation for this reaction.) adequate: the nickel (impregnated in the zeolite).  With this catalyst non sulphide, they were able to convert the material (Matter is the substance that makes up any body having a tangible reality. The three most common states are solid, liquid, gaseous state. It takes up space and the amount of material is measured using the ...) gross oil consisting mainly of unsaturated fatty acids under mild conditions.  After a chemical reaction of eight hours (Time is a unit of measurement) in which mono-, di-and triglycerides were saturated with hydrogen, they were able to obtain an alkane (saturated hydrocarbon) more commonly known as propane (propane is a linear alkane of formula C3H8.).  Propane, commonly used as a source of energy (in common sense energy means anything that can do work, produce heat, light, produce a movement.) by combustion (Combustion an exothermic chemical reaction (that is to say, with more energy as heat).), is best known for the production of gases (the microscopic level, a gas is described as a set of atoms or molecules very weakly bound and quasi-independent.

According to Gregor von Kursell, spokesman for EADS, which is sponsoring the project (a project - in a professional context - a temporary adventure company in order to create a unique product or service:), should now find a way make the production of biodiesel economically viable.