UNI-NABL researchers collaborate with Iowa-based microwave company to make bio-based grease manufacturing safer, more efficient.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- University of Northern Iowa researchers working with an Iowa-based industrial microwave company have new reasons to celebrate. Their idea to make biobased grease by using microwaves has proven successful beyond their expectations and has recently been implemented in a biobased grease production facility.
When a fire destroyed the Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing Inc. (ELM ) production facility in 2007, Lou Honary and Wes James, both researchers at UNI's National Ag-Based Lubricants Center (UNI-NABL), began to search for alternative methods of making grease. They found a solution using microwaves to heat the greases in production.
Typically, the grease-making process requires heat transfer oils that are heated up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. These oils are used to "cook" the grease materials at temperatures of 350 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. If any heat transfer oil escapes the system at such high temperatures it could start a fire, such as that at ELM.
The research showed that heating by microwave doesn't damage the vegetable oils to the extent of other heating methods. Microwave energy uniformly heats the oil, thus preventing hot spots and premature oxidation of the oil. Also, vegetable oils have shown to absorb the microwave energy efficiently and heat up faster than petroleum oils. Most importantly the grease-making process can be performed in approximately one-third as much time as the conventional method and in much smaller space.
Honary and James were joined by experts from AMTek, a major industrial microwave equipment manufacturer, and began to scale up what had shown to be a safer, more efficient and more effective production method. Using larger microwave units at AMTek, the research team tested the concept with gallon-size batches, a step up from milliliter batches tested in the laboratory trials.
This week, using the patent-pending technology created by UNI-NABL, a new production quantity 800-gallon microwave-based grease reactor became operational at ELM, a grease and lubricant manufacturing facility in Grundy Center, Iowa.
The safety factor "has increased many times" said Honary, UNI professor, UNI-NABL director and co-inventor of this new process.
"We were excited to see that our theories were on the mark when we went from a 1.75 KW laboratory microwave to a 150 KW industrial microwave," said James, UNI-NABL associate director and co-inventor. "Since the microwave heating is uniform, the end product is more predictable. The microwave energy can be pulsed through programmable logic controllers (PLCs), resulting in accurate heating and more uniform and consistent chemical reactions."
Tim Sheurs, president and CEO of AMTek, said "we have been marketing our large industrial microwave units mostly within the food processing industry. But learning that the process can increase safety while actually making the chemical manufacturing more competitive is very promising."
Alan Burgess, manager of operations at ELM, supervised the first production quantity biobased grease produced using microwaves. He was "pleasantly surprised" by the accuracy and speed of the heating.
"We completed a production batch in about two hours when in the past, even with much larger gas or electric operated heat system, it would take six to eight hours to complete the same process," Burgess said. "The grease is lighter in color because we are sure we are not burning the product as in conventional methods and the process does not damage the product because the heating is uniform and quick."
Stephen Rogers, CFO of AMTek, is not surprised at the efficiency of the process.
"Industrial microwave systems can offer important economic and safety advantages to the chemical industry," Rogers said, "but the technology and its economics are not clearly understood. The demonstrated production of grease manufacturing will help highlight these benefits."
The grease-making process is sped up so much that the process is almost continuous, according to Mike Jensen, ELM product manager.
"We make different batches of grease in the microwave-based reactor quickly and then feed them into various finishing vessels, one after the other," he said. "The time and energy savings are bound to revolutionize the chemical processing if implemented nationwide."
The research team is compiling various technical and economic data on the performance of the microwave-based system. Preliminary information indicates that the process time could be reduced to about one third of what it takes to heat with equivalent-sized conventional methods. The energy losses are significantly lower according to ELM, and the accuracy of the heating is improved.
According to Burgess, "once we turn the microwave input off, the energy input ceases completely, making the process much safer. Now all that's left is to build more history and experience with the system and determine the true economic benefits."
UNI-NABL is a non-profit, university-based research and testing facility dedicated to the advancement of biobased lubricants. The center was established in 1991 through the collaborative efforts of UNI, the state of Iowa, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Soybean Association/Iowa Soybean Promotion Board. UNI-NABL's research has resulted in the commercialization of more than 30 soybean-oil-based industrial lubricants and greases. For more information about UNI-NABL, visit www.uni.edu/nabl.
ELM is a privately owned company formed in 2000 to commercialize biobased lubricant and grease technology created at the University of Northern Iowa's National Ag-based Lubricants Center. The company is a leading manufacturer of biobased products and markets its products through select distributors and a private label. For more information, visit www.elmusa.com.
AMTek Inc., an Iowa-based company with a network of dealers and distributors around the world, has become the world leader in food tempering and cooking. AMTek partners with companies, such as ELM, to develop and improve heating, defrosting and drying applications for companies in the food, mineral, agricultural and bio-fuels industries, among others. For more information, visit www.4AMTek.com, or call 877-365-2008.
