Process for the pre-treatment of feeds for the production of biofuels by hydrolysis of fats at high temperature and pressure

Abstract

A hydrotreating and isomerization pre-treatment process in a biofuel production plant, which is characterized in that it occurs from a raw supply consisting of an organic feed comprising secondary materials such as frying oils, category 1 animal fats, residual oils or by-products consisting of monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides and free fatty acids, which is added to a recycling stream consisting of a mixture of mono-, di- and triglycerides free of impurities and exiting an esterification unit, said process occurring by means of hydrolysis with excess water, under controlled pressure and temperature conditions, thus obtaining the partial or total conversion of the supply into glycerol and fatty acids, the excess water introduced into the hydrolysis process acting as a solvent for impurities of various nature present in ionic form, thus removing most of the heavy metals, as well as of the chlorides present in said supply.