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With depleting fossil fuel resources and increasing concern on climate change mitigation, renewable low-carbon biofuel has been widely considered for transportation fuel. Since 2008, Thailand has been commercially blending conventional […]

Upgraded Biodiesel (H-FAME) via Partial Hydrogenation for Higher Biodiesel Blends in Thailand

Nuwong Chollacoop | Renewable Energy Research Team Leader, National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC)

With depleting fossil fuel resources and increasing concern on climate change mitigation, renewable low-carbon biofuel has been widely considered for transportation fuel. Since 2008, Thailand has been commercially blending conventional biodiesel, also known as Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME), from palm oil in petroleum diesel fuel as an optional fuel till a mandate of 5% in 2012 and subsequently 7% in 2014. Higher percentage blends to alleviate climate change problems would be more desirable; however, increasing biodiesel blending faces several issues, especially quality assurance and automotive/materials compatibility.

Innovative biodiesel upgrading process, known as H-FAME (partially Hydrogenated Fatty Acid Methyl Ester), has been developed through the Japan-Thailand collaboration during 2010-2016 aiming for higher blend acceptance by car manufacturers by lowering the monoglyceride content from 0.7wt% to 0.4wt%. As a result, H-FAME has been adopted in the Thailand Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP: 2015-2036) as a potential technology to support higher blends of biodiesel use.

Consequently, the national biodiesel (B10) project was supported by the Energy Conservation (ENCON) fund to further upscale the H-FAME process for larger scale vehicle testing. With successful B10 testing results from eight common-rail pick-up trucks at 100,000 km each and 150 vehicles fuelling 100,000 liters, Thailand has revised its biodiesel specification by lowering the monoglyceride content from 0.7wt% to 0.4wt% for the commercial launch of B10 in May 2019, which became a base diesel after January 2020.

Nuwong-Chollacoop

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After receiving his Ph.D. from MIT in 2004, Dr. Nuwong returned to MTEC working in the field of biofuel for transportation, ranging from production, characterization, standardization to utilization in engines. His numerous research projects domestically and internationally has earned him the 2009 Green Talents Award from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Germany and the 2018-2019 ASEAN Science and Technology Fellow. His novel biodiesel upgrading process called H-FAME, in collaboration with the Japanese organization AIST has been adopted in the Thailand Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP: 2015-2036), which served as the basis for the revised national standard of biodiesel (B100) and B10 which was adopted for commercial use in 2019. His research has expanded towards sustainable mobility, where he worked under the ASEAN German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) on Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Mitigation in the Land Transport Sector with a focus on fuel economy initiatives. This work resulted in the ASEAN Fuel Economy Roadmap which was adopted during the 24th ASEAN Transport Ministers Meeting on 8-9 November 2018. In addition, he is a founding member of the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand (EVAT) in 2015, and has served as a committee member ever since to help drive EV adoption in Thailand. He has co-authored over 103 international journal publications.
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