All You Need to Know About Cruzesterification

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Have you heard this process before? Cruzesterification? Well, if the ongoing test conducted by Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) goes well and become succesful, this could be a breath of fresh air for our farmers who has long been in depth mud brought about by the ever increasing petrochemical prices.

According to neda.gov.ph, cruzesterification is the process of reacting the triglycerides (vegetable oils) with alcohol (methanol/ethanol) in the presence of catalysts at room temperature to produce the ester (biodiesel) and glycerol. Simply put it, cruzesterification is a process of producing biodiesel from used vegetable oil. It is a very simple process with no external heat application needed and does not require sophisticated equipment. This technology was developed by Dr. Rico O. Cruz, a Filipino expert on biofuel in Oregon, USA.

Reports from Manila Bulletin says that  “Farmers can soon cut on fuel expenses,” PhilRice said in a statement it released, describing the new technology in making biodiesel as a lot cheaper since it does not need any heating ingredients and sophisticated equipment, unlike the biodiesel sold at gasoline stations.

Dr. Cruz further stated that "Producing biodiesel using Cruzesterification makes the production of biodiesel as “easy as making coffee, in which the catalyst is the coffee, alcohol as the sugar and oil as the hot water. Blend the three ingredients and you have a coffee or a biodiesel in minutes,” Cruz said.

He said that he discovered the process from more than 20 years of research adding that he uses biodiesel in his own cars abroad.

Ingredients and corresponding costs are the following: potassium hydroxide, P80.00/kg; methanol, P80.00/L; and used oil, P400.00 per 17 kg gallon which is an affordable option for many of our farmers. In producing 100 L of biodiesel, Cruz said 100 L of used oil is needed and requires 1.1 kg of potassium hydroxide and 20 L of methanol at a production cost of P38.00/L and production time of 18 hours. Compared to current fuel price which is approximately P45.00/L and takes years to produce, vegetable based biodiesel have great advantage here.

Can we see more of our farmers mixing their fuel on the kitchen in the near future? I hope it is, they just had to have lots of used vegetable oil.