FUELS AND IGNITION AIDS MADE OF MODIFIED, RENEWABLE RAW MATERIALS

Abstract

A fuel is described comprising a material containing cellulose or hemicellulose as well as of fats and/or oils stemming from secondary or cascade utilization or containing these, wherein the fats and oils are obtained by processing waste and recycling materials.

Claims

1. A fuel, comprising: (i) a material containing cellulose or hemicellulose and (ii) one or more oils or fats, wherein the one or more oils and fats are sourced from waste and recycling materials stemming from secondary or cascade utilization and have been hydrogenated prior to combining with the cellulose or hemicellulose.

2. The fuel according to claim 1, the waste and recycling materials are selected from the group consisting of: used cooking fats, returns and reject batches stemming from the food and cosmetics industries, used vegetable oils, animal fats from slaughterhouse waste, and mixtures thereof.

3. The fuel according to claim 1, wherein, in addition to hydrogenation, the waste and recycling materials undergo chemical, or physical or both chemical and physical processing.

4. (canceled)

5. The fuel according to claim 1, wherein the one or more oils and fats are derived from materials classified as C1, C2 or C3 under EU Regulation 1774/2002.

6. The fuel according to claim 1, wherein the material containing cellulose or hemicellulose is selected from the group consisting of: wood residues, waste and recycling matter from grasses (Poaceae), waste and recycling matter from sedges (Cyperaceae), grain cultivation or grain processing, and mixtures thereof.

7. The fuel according to claim 6, wherein the waste and recycling materials from grain cultivation or grain processing include chaff, threshing waste, chips, dust, flour or straw.

8. The fuel according to claim 7, in the form of a rope made of straw.

9. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

12. A method for the production of a fuel, comprising: mixing a material containing cellulose or hemicellulose or both cellulose and hemicellulose with oils or fats or both oils and fats that have been hydrogenated prior to mixing.

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. The method for the production of a fuel of claim 12, wherein mixing is by immersing the material containing cellulose or hemicellulose or both cellulose and hemicellulose into the oils or fats or both oils and fats.

16. The method for the production of a fuel of claim 12, wherein mixing is by spraying the material containing cellulose or hemicellulose or both cellulose and hemicellulose with oils or fats or both oils and fats.

17. The method for the production of a fuel of claim 12, further comprising: prior to hydrogenating, liquefying the oils or fats or both oils and fats; filtering the liquified oils or fats or both oils and fats; enriching the filtered and liquified oils or fats or both oils and fats by sorption; and distilling the filtered and liquified oils or fats or both oils and fats.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] The raw materials (raw materials A) for the fuels and ignition aids according to the invention (also together referred to as fuels) are, on the one hand, substances stemming from secondary or cascade utilization (waste and recycling materials which can be readily burned as such without releasing environmentally harmful substances in this process. These are preferably cellulose or hemicellulose substances. Preferred examples are wood or wood residues in the form of sawdust, shavings, fibers, small pieces or wood dust, which can also be compressed and mixed together with each other. Likewise included here are paper and cardboard of any grade as well as waste and recycling materials stemming from grain cultivation and grain processing such as, for instance, chaff, threshing waste, chips, dust, flour and straw. In this context, the term straw is used as a collective term for threshed and/or dried stalks and leaves of plants, protists of any type and size such as, for example, grains, oily plants, fibrous plants, legumes, etc. According to the invention, these are preferably plants that grow annually and thus especially meet the requirement of sustainability. According to the invention, straw is also used in the form of (twisted) straw ropes.

[0018] The list of raw materials A presented above is not complete and any person skilled in the art who has knowledge of the present invention can directly augment this list with additional substances and materials that are suitable for the purpose according to the invention.

[0019] The above-mentioned materials are characterized by a high energy yield when they are burned, but they need to be improved in terms of their ignition and combustion behavior as well as ease of handling.

[0020] These raw materials A are improved or modified according to the invention with an eye towards the above-mentioned criteria by the addition of oils and fats or their derivatives or constituents such as fatty acids, fatty alcohols, glycerin from the secondary sector or from cascade utilization. These fats and oils are constituents of, or themselves constitute, waste or recycling materials from cascade or secondary utilization and normally have to be disposed of at great effort or collected for further utilization (raw materials B). For the objectives of the present invention, the term cascade utilization refers to the preceding single or multiple use of a substance or material in identical or different applications.

[0021] However, as a rule, it is not possible to directly make use according to the invention of the raw materials B since undefined substance mixtures are obtained from the waste sector of secondary or cascade utilization (e.g. used cooking fats, returns and reject batches from the food and cosmetics industries, heavily contaminated C1 to C3 materials that fall under EU Regulation 1774/2002 or EU Regulation (EC) 1069/2009, used vegetable oils and animal fats from slaughterhouse waste as well as fats and oil from the animal-feed sector such as fish and crustacean oils, corn oil, olive oil, cotton-seed oil, soy oil, coconut oil, palm oil, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil). Moreover, the heat changes brought about by the processing give rise to polymerization products and/or breakdown products. Aside from the undefined chemical composition, it is also often the case that the physical parameters such as, for instance, an excessively low melting point of such substance mixtures stand in the way of their use according to the invention. If the melting point of the oil and fat component is too low, this makes processing, handling and storage of the thus-produced fuels all the more difficult, especially at high temperatures.

[0022] For this reason, the waste and recycling materials that can be used according to the invention and that stem from secondary or cascade utilization have to be processed prior to their being used. For this purpose, preferably the following method steps are suitable which are preferably all carried out in the indicated sequence. Depending on the condition and the quality of the available fat and oil component, it is also possible to dispense with one or more individual steps.

[0023] The material on hand from secondary or cascade utilization is liquefied and optionally fed through a filter system in order to eliminate any foreign matter present.

[0024] In a mixing reactor, the desired fat and oil materials are enriched by means of sorption (media: zeolites, activated carbon, saw shavings, etc.) at a phase boundary and washed for a time period of preferably 15 to 45 minutes until the possibly acidic washing water is completely clear. The temperature during this procedurewhich sometimes has to be repeated one or more timesis preferably approximately 70 C. to 80 C.

[0025] This is usually followed by another filtration step. During this step, the filter medium (e.g. zeolites) is preferably configured in such a way that ranges of up to 1.2 m can be filtered and a lipid permeability is achieved and maintained. The product of this filtration can, if necessary, undergo step 2 once again, whereby in this case, this is carried out at temperatures of preferably 50 C. to 110 C.

[0026] The product of the preceding method steps can undergo distillation in order to perform further (fine) purification. For instance, in this manner, it is possible to separate out undesired olfactory contamination. Preferably, the distillation is carried out up to an acid value of less than 2. This allows the further use according to the invention of highly broken-down substances stemming from second or third utilization. Incremental inspection and sampling are advisable in this context.

[0027] Optionally, this can be followed by a hydrogenation step. This is described extensively, for example, in European patent specification EP 2 109 660 B1 and serves, on the one hand, to reliably decontaminate the employed raw materials B, eliminating bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. (e.g. in the case of C1 to C3 materials) and, on the other hand, this step serves to achieve fat hydrogenation by saturating the double bonds as well as to obtain an end product that is as homogeneous as possible. This process is preferably carried out at 200 C. to 280 C. and at pressures of 0.2 MPa to 5 MPa. Sampling and determining the iodine value (preferably, e.g. 1 to 120) make it possible to regulate the desired degree of hydrogenation. In the realm of the fuels that are to be produced here, splitting the double bonds has proven to be advantageous in order to prevent spontaneous self-ignition processes, without thereby detrimentally affecting a quick burn-off and clean combustion processes.

[0028] A subsequent filtration process can be advantageous for purposes of removing any residues of the common hydrogenation catalysts and any undesired polymerization products that might be present.

[0029] The product thus obtained is filled into a thermal storage unit, preferably at temperatures from 25 C. to 100 C. and then stored. As a rule, an excessively short cooling time with high temperature gradients should be avoided for the processed raw materials B since this can lead to unstable crystal structures which could have a detrimental effect on the properties of the fuel end products.

[0030] The explained method steps 1 to 7 are fundamentally known in the state of the art. Their configuration and sequence can be easily adapted to the starting materials in question (raw materials B) by the person skilled in the art.

[0031] The processed raw materials B thus obtained preferably have melting points within the range from 30 C. to 60 C.

[0032] For the purposes of the invention, the various (processed) raw materials B can be fundamentally mixed and used in any desired ratio in order to process them as well as afterwards. With an eye towards further improving the properties, in certain cases, it can be advisable to admix small amounts of primary fats and primary oils to the purified material.

[0033] The raw materials B processed according to the invention exhibit a purity and quality that allow their safe use in an array of industrially as well as non-industrially manufactured products. After appropriate processing, they can also be employed in the food and animal-feed sectors. Examples of these are glycerin or substances containing glycerin stemming from cascade utilization, whereby the glycerin can be re-used after the described treatment, for example, in the food industry, as solvents and humectants for tobacco and cosmetics and also as an ingredient of anti-freeze agents and lubricants. Moreover, the fats, fatty acids and fatty alcohols thus obtained are suitable, for example, as fuel for combustion machines.

[0034] For the production of the fuel according to the invention, the processed raw materials B are admixed to the raw materials A. There are fundamentally no limitations when it comes to the possible combinations of the raw materials A and the processed raw materials B (both in terms of the composition of the raw materials A and of the processed raw materials B as well as in terms of the composition of the combination of A and processed B). Preference is given to A-to-B ratios within the range from 90:10 to 10:90, especially of approximately 50:50 (all figures are in % by weight). In this context, the raw materials A can have been pretreated. This means that these materials can be present in mixed or compressed form as pellets or granules, or else twisted into a kind of rope, for instance, in the case of fibers and straw, in order to increase the energy density. The raw materials A are preferably coated with the processed raw materials B, sprayed with the processed raw materials B or else immersed into the processed raw materials B. The raw materials A and the processed raw materials B can also be mixed together and, if applicable, can be subsequently compressed to form pellets or granules. There are no restrictions whatsoever regarding the way in which the raw materials A are mixed with the processed raw materials B. This procedure can be adapted to the materials in question and to the application purposes in the best possible manner. The (requisite) degree of processing of the raw materials B can also vary to a great extent. This ranges from no need for any processing all the way to a complete deployment of all of the method steps described. According to the invention, this is all encompassed by the terms processing or processed.

[0035] The fuels manufactured according to the invention can be produced and offered in a wide array of types, for instance, as rope pieces, in the form of briquettes, slabs, cubes, sticks, pellets, granules and as dusts of various grain sizes. Packaging the fuels according to the invention has proven to be very advantageous when it comes to their handling and portioning properties, especially for their use as ignition aids such as, for example, grill lighters and lighters for fireplaces or ceramic heating stoves. In this context, preference is given to packaging in pouches or bags of various sizes which can be described as small, large or extra large teabags. These, in turn, can be packaged in other packaging units (for instance, boxes or crates).

[0036] These bags are filled with the raw materials Awhich can already but do not necessarily have to have been combined with the processed raw materials B. Suitable for this purpose are especially small-sized or fine-grained raw materials A such as, for example, dusts. The bags thus filled are subsequently sprayed or coated with the processed raw materials B or else immersed into the processed raw materials B, so that a fat or oil coating is formed on them. This coating protects the bag and its contents against moisture, so that this kindling material can be ignited, for example, during barbecuing, even when it is raining, and it then reliably burns off. Moreover, this also reduces saturation with humidity during storage and ensures reliable ignition and burn-off behavior. In addition, the raw materials A can be mixed in a mixing drum together with, for instance, fat granules and subsequently, this mixture can be filled into the bag by means of a filling station (teabag filling system). Various materials such as, for example, absorbent paper, filter paper, cellulose, etc. are all well-suited as the wall material of the bags or pouches.

[0037] Finally, fragrances and colorants (e.g. cedar oil) and/or other admixtures such as, for instance, pyrotechnical agents to generate light effects (for example, Cu powder) can be admixed to the fuels according to the invention. In this context, usually an amount of 2% to 3% by weight relative to the total fuel should not be exceeded. In most cases, considerably smaller amounts are already sufficient in order to attain the desired olfactory and visual effects.

[0038] The fuels according to the invention are characterized by a reliable ignition and burn-off behavior as well as convenient handling and portioning properties. An aspect worth mentioning is the sustainability of these fuels since they can be made exclusively out of recycling or waste materials which, furthermore, are regionally available in sufficient quantities and consequently do not have to be transported over long distances. These fuels or kindling materials are also provided with a hydrophobic finish, a measure which significantly delays their degradation processes and reduces or prevents the release of carbon oxides. The release of carbon monoxide, for example, in storage units or containers holding untreated wood pellets, is a problem that should not be underestimated.

[0039] The present invention is not restricted in terms of its configuration to the embodiments presented here. Rather, several variants are conceivable which make use of the solution presented here, even in the case of other types of configurations. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that this disclosure is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but it is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.