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A project being developed parallel to the one I'm working on has to do with combusting industrial waste from the production of biodiesel. The biodiesel process creates glycerine as a byproduct.
In the lab today there were a number of 55 gallon drums of glycerine labelled "Kosher" to be used as feedstock for the process. I don't know if it actually came from biodiesel production, but it sure looked weird.
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I don't know why those were labeled kosher. I don't think people are refusing to purchase ethanol because of the content, at least not in a kosher sense.
It would be interested to find out why they were labeled as such, though. Maybe I'm wrong.
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A lot of prepared foods are manufactured Kosher, and all the ingredients that go into them have to be Kosher. I'm not sure if there is glycerin in Oreos, but it's something I could well imagine, and if there were, it would have to be Kosher. Perhaps, like Oreos, it's not a matter of targetting solely the Kosher market as much as knowing that by complying with their requirements you free up your market.
From Wiki:
quote:Foods and beverages Serves as humectant, solvent and sweetener, may help preserve foods. Solvent for flavors (such as vanilla) and food coloring. Humectant and softening agent in candy, cakes and casings for meats and cheeses. Manufacture of mono- and di-glycerides for use as emulsifiers Used in manufacture of polyglycerol esters going into shortenings and margarine. Used as filler in low-fat food products (i.e., cookies). Used as thickening agent in liqueurs. Produced when butter becomes rancid.
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Glycerin can be derived from animal or vegetable sources. That derived from vegetable sources is kosher; from animal sources, not kosher. The glycerin can be used in food, medicine and cosmetic. For those people who care about the source of the ingredients in those things, the "kosher" glycerin is vegetable-derived.
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So it's okay to eat beef cooked in tallow, yet it's not okay to use soap made with tallow? A "no milk products with beef"-type restriction -- which I can understand from a "sharing nutrition" point of view -- or something more subtle?
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: Glycerin can be derived from animal or vegetable sources. That derived from vegetable sources is kosher; from animal sources, not kosher. The glycerin can be used in food, medicine and cosmetic. For those people who care about the source of the ingredients in those things, the "kosher" glycerin is vegetable-derived.
Hence, the biodiesel process produces kosher by-products. Makes sense, I guess. I would have thought it would have required more, like rabbinical oversight or something.
Also, while soap has been made with lye for a long time, biodiesel uses lye and methanol. Are petrochemicals kosher?
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Can coal ash be used in the biodiesel process? If so, is the removal of contaminants too expensive?
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The coal ash I'm currently producing is mostly silica. Ash with higher sodium content has a tendency to turn to slag (Glass). It can be used as bulk in cement production, but I don't think you can get sodium hydroxide in useable form from this coal.
However, different coal-fired powerplants are actually designed around the properties of the coal feedstock. There are many different coals, each with dramatically different properties, but if there's a coal that produces lye-laden ash, I'm not aware of it.
Also, the mercury capture process involves seeding the flue stream with a sorbent that catches the mercury, and then gets caught in the baghouse, so the mercury ends up with the ash. Mixing it with methanol and lye would likely liberate the mercury into the biodiesel, whereas adding it to cement does a much better job of encapsulating it.
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