Turning waste vegetable oil into "good medicine" can reduce the discharge of waste residue by nearly ten thousand tons per year

Recently, Xie Yaohui, an undergraduate from the school of environment and chemical engineering, Tianjin University of technology, and other researchers developed new technologies that can turn waste vegetable oil residue into a treasure The preparation of biodiesel and the extraction of phytosterol can not only reduce the emissions of waste residue of nearly 10000 tons per year, but also produce about 150 million yuan of economic benefits The research team showed that the plant oil residue was rich in phytosterols (about 20% ~ 35% of the weight of residual oil) and fatty acids (about 30 ~ 45% of the weight of residual oil) However, the composition of vegetable oil residue oil is complex, in which sterols and fatty acids exist in the form of combination The traditional separation and purification technologies such as crystallization and distillation can not achieve the extraction and comprehensive utilization of sterols and fatty acids in residue oil The research group uses the catalytic decomposition method to decompose the fatty acid sterols into free sterols to achieve the crystallization and separation of sterols; at the same time, the fatty acid glycerides are separated It is also decomposed into free fatty acids, and then esterified with methanol to produce fatty acid methyl ester (biodiesel) by catalytic esterification to realize the comprehensive utilization of fatty acids in residual oil It is understood that phytosterol is a kind of natural substance with important physiological value, which can be used as the raw material of steroid hormone drugs to reduce blood lipid, fight cancer and prevent prostate diseases Biodiesel is a kind of green renewable energy, which is made from vegetable oil or animal oil by esterification or transesterification with low molecular weight alcohol The reporter calculated an account At present, the market price of vegetable oil residue oil is less than 2000 yuan per ton, while the market price of sterol with more than 90% content is about 70000 yuan per ton, and the market price of biodiesel is 7000 yuan per ton According to the calculation of 20% phytosterol and 30% biodiesel, the output value of residual oil per ton reaches 16000 yuan China is a big oil producing country If we use nearly ten thousand tons of residual oil produced in China every year to extract sterols and prepare biodiesel, we can generate about 150 million yuan of economic benefits, and reduce nearly ten thousand tons of waste residue emissions, with considerable economic and social benefits.