Process for preparation of a fuel with additive

(54) Title: FUEL (30) Unionist priority: 16 / hi / 2oo7epo7ooo823.o,

05/02/2007 EP 07 002467.4, 31/08/2007 EP 07 115434.8 (73) Owner (s): Earthfly Holding Gmbh (72) Inventor (s): Thomas Peer (74) Attorney (s): Dannemann, Siemsen, Bigler & Ipanema Moreira (86) International Order: pct EP2008050407 of 15/01/2008 (87) International Publication: wo 2008 / 087i44de 24/07/2008 (57) Abstract: FUEL, the present invention relates to a fuel having an additive to increase the calorific value, where the additive solidifies and the handling of the fuel is thereby improved.

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Descriptive Report of the Patent for FUEL.

The present invention relates to a fuel and a method for producing this fuel.

Fossil fuels in solid form and fuels from biomass have been known for a long time. These fuels are needed in many areas of the industry for a variety of applications, but are mainly used to generate electricity or heat in power plants or for heating purposes in private areas.

Due to increasing scarcity and rising costs for fuels, attempts are being made to increase the calorific value of fuels through additives.

It is known from US 4443227 to treat a charcoal with a fatty acid based additive and WO 96/14372 discloses a fuel made from organic materials that also has a fatty acid based additive.

A disadvantage of the additives used is that they do not solidify and the fuel is always greasy after adding the additive and loses the additive again. As a result, this can have the consequence, during long storage, that the fuel completely loses the additive and all advantages of the additive are lost.

In addition, fuel must be transported and stored in special packaging, since conventional packaging softens and tears due to the additive or absorbs the additive, which would result in an undesirable reduction of the additive in the fuel and an increase in the risk of fire.

Regarding the undesirable water absorption, the fatty acid additive in the prior art behaves in a hydrophobic way and, consequently, minimizes the incorporation of water, however it cannot completely prevent this as a result of its content in the fuel continuously. decreasing.

An additional disadvantage of the fuel in the prior art is that the additive cannot prevent abrasion during transport and storage, since the additive does not solidify and does not provide any additional stability to the fuel.

When handling this fuel, the user must always

- 5 wear gloves and take other protective measures to avoid contamination of hands and clothes by the greasy additive.

These disadvantages are inappropriate for both the manufacturer and the buyer and, in addition, increase the costs of this fuel.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a fuel having an additive that increases the calorific value of the fuel, that completely prevents the incorporation of water, that does not exhibit any abrasion and that can be easily handled.

This objective is achieved with a fuel having the characteristics of claim 1 and a method for producing such a fuel according to claim 6.

The basic idea of ​​the invention is to treat a fuel with an additive that increases the calorific value and solidifies.

The fuel according to the invention and a preferred composition of the additive are described below. Coal can be selected as a fossil starting material for fuel, where all types of coal, for example, stone coal, lignite or charcoal, are available for this purpose.

Any type of biomass is also suitable as a starting material, as an alternative to a fossil starting material. The non-final examples for this are wood, wood chips, grain, such as wheat, rice, corn, rye, barley, oats or millet, starch, for example, from beans, peas or potatoes, straw, all kinds of seeds, such as olive seeds, palm oil seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and all substances that contain cellulose.

The fuel is preferably compressed into shaped pieces, where these shaped pieces can have any possible shape. The so-called briquettes or pellets proved to be particularly suitable formats.

Before the compression process, the starting material can be present in any form, that is, in the form of powders, such as chips etc.

It is understood that mixtures of charcoal, lignite, charcoal and biomass are also suitable.

In the process, the starting material or its mixture is compressed into the desired shape, under high pressure.

The additive according to the invention, which is added to the starting material, comprises palmitic acid, stearic acid, lauric acid, myristic acid and oleic acid and comprises the following fractions:

to 60% palmitic acid to 50% maximum stearic acid to 3% maximum myristic acid to 1% lauric acid and traces of oleic acid.

Percentages can comprise both weight percentages and volume percentages.

In this composition, the additive is present in a non-greasy, solid form, although it has the same property of increasing the calorific value as in the prior art. For this reason, the incorporation of water can no longer form in the fuel treated with this additive, and the fuel surface is protected against abrasion or the formation of cracks, which reduces the rupture of the fuel during transport. Consequently, there is no loss of starting material or additive.

It is also advantageous that the fuel does not need to be stored and transported in any particular packaging, since the fuel does not lose the additive through greasing and does not release any type of dust and the fuel user does not need to take any protective measures against contamination of clothing and hands.

If, for example, charcoal for barbecue is treated with the additive according to the invention, this improves the combustion behavior and also the handling of charcoal for barbecue, since there is no risk of contamination for hands.

In addition, this encapsulation by the additive prevents any formation of fine powders, with the result that it is possible to handle the fuel without putting the user's health at risk. If only an increase in calorific value is of interest, the above mentioned additive composition can be adjusted in a variable way.

A method for producing this particular fuel is explained below.

During fuel production, the additive can be processed in either solid or liquid form. In solid form, the additive is combined in the form of flakes or powders with the starting material, which can be present in any form. After producing a uniform mixture, it is compressed into a specified format, under high pressure. During this compression, the additive is distributed evenly within the shaped pieces and forms a protective layer on their surfaces.

Alternatively, before application, the additive can be heated above its specific melting point and used in liquid form. The specific melting point of the aforementioned composition is around 62 degrees Celsius.

In this case, the compression process of the starting material can be carried out both before and after treatment with the additive. The treatment of the starting material can be carried out by passing through, or immersing in, a bath containing the liquid additive or by spraying it. It should be mentioned that the treatment of the starting material with the liquid additive has the advantage that the incorporated water is expelled due to the hot additive, with the result that the flammability is also improved. The preferred temperature of the additive when carrying out the treatment is between 70 and 90 °, however it can be higher or lower.

An alternative to the aforementioned additive is paraffin. Paraffin is a non-toxic and hydrophobic, odorless, combustible substance, similar to wax that, under certain conditions explained below, has the relevant properties for the invention.

Paraffin indicates a mixture of alkanes, that is, saturated hydrocarbons, where paraffin generally has the molecular chemical formula C_nH2n + 2, where n can be between 18 and 50. Depending on the length of the chain, the melting point varies between 30 and 80 ° C and the hardness of the paraffin varies, with the advantageous possibility of selecting a melting point and a degree desired hardness levels, depending on the application. Consequently, the method described above can be performed unchanged with paraffin.

Paraffin can be used alone or in combination with the additive explained above, having found that a mixture with the aforementioned additive has very good properties with a maximum fraction of

50% paraffin.

In addition, in cases where merely an increase in calorific values ​​is desired, vegetable and animal fats can be used alone or in any mixing ratio. Non-final examples for this are rapeseed oil, rapeseed methyl ester, sunflower oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil, coconut oil or coconut fat, palm oil seeds, soy oil and all palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, myristic acid and linoleic acid compositions.