Simulation of Vegetable Oil Transesterification for Biodiesel Production (original) (raw)
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Simulation of Biodiesel Production by Transesterification of Vegetable Oils
2014
This work presents an ChemCAD 6.0 Simulation study for biodiesel production. The simulation illustrates the produc tion of biofuel from pure vegetable oil with an alkaline catalyst. The main areas are transesterification, methanol separation, water washing, FAME purification, catalyst neutralization and glycerol purification. The equipment used includes in particular reactors, distillation and extraction columns and components splitters. As a result of the simulation, the two final target prod ucts - biodiesel and glycerol, are obtained with purity 98 % and 99 %, respectively. The suggested technological scheme provides a possibility for recuperation of the heat streams.
A mathematical model describing chemical kinetics of transesterification of model oil for biodiesel production has been developed. The model is based on the reverse mechanism of transesterification reactions and describes dynamics concentration changes of triglycerides, diglycerides, monoglycerides, biodiesel, and glycerol production. An analysis of process variables such as temperature and molar ratio model oil-methanol using response surface analysis was performed to achieve the maximum oil conversion rate to biodiesel. The reaction rate constants and activation energies were determined for all the forward and reverse reactions. The experimental results were found to fit a first-order kinetic law for the forward reaction and a second-order one for the reverse reaction. The results indicated that the rate-control step could be attributed to the surface reaction and the esterification processes can be well-depicted by the as-calculated kinetic formula in the range of the experimental conditions. A very good correlation between model simulations and experimental data was observed.
Biomechanism and Bioenergy Research, 2022
Currently, the main source of energy used all over the world are fossil fuels. Due to their non-renewable nature as well as the environmental problems caused by their use, the need for an alternative energy source is felt. Biodiesel is a biodegradable, non-toxic and environmentally friendly substance. This substance is produced from vegetable oils and animal fats in different ways. Using the Transesterification method to produce biodiesel has advantages such as low cost, high reaction speed and better quality than other methods. In this research, the effect of factors such as temperature, stirring speed, methanol-to-oil ratio, and catalyst weight percentage on biodiesel production was investigated with the help of experimental design using Minitab software version 19. The quality of the produced product was compared with international standards by measuring some of its characteristics. The esterification reaction was carried out by methanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide catalyst. Based on the "Placket Burman" design (PBD), the influencing factors including the ratio of methanol to oil and the weight percentage of the catalyst were identified. Considering that the temperature and stirring speed do not have much effect on the process, there is no need to adjust the process temperature to reduce the production cost, and the mixing speed can be used with less energy consumption.
Bioresource Technology, 2011
Presence of unreacted glycerides in biodiesel may reduce drastically its quality. This is why conversion of raw material in biodiesel through transesterification needs to readjust reaction parameter values to complete. In the present work, monitoring of glycerides transformation in biodiesel during the transesterification of vegetable oils was carried out. To check the influence of the chemical composition on glycerides conversion, selected vegetable oils covered a wide range of fatty acid composition. Reactions were carried out under alkali-transesterification in the presence of methanol. In addition, a multiple regression model was proposed. Results showed that kinetics depends on chemical and physical properties of the oils. It was found that the optimal reaction temperature depends on both length and unsaturation degree of vegetable oils fatty acid chains. Vegetable oils with higher degree of unsaturation exhibit faster monoglycerides conversion to biodiesel. It can be concluded that fatty acid composition influences reaction parameters and glycerides conversion, hence biodiesel yield and economic viability.
Technical aspects of biodiesel production by transesterification—a review
Renewable and sustainable energy …, 2006
Biodiesel is gaining more and more importance as an attractive fuel due to the depleting fossil fuel resources. Chemically biodiesel is monoalkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable feed stock like vegetable oils and animal fats. It is produced by transesterification in which, oil or fat is reacted with a monohydric alcohol in presence of a catalyst. The process of transesterification is affected by the mode of reaction condition, molar ratio of alcohol to oil, type of alcohol, type and amount of catalysts, reaction time and temperature and purity of reactants. In the present paper various methods of preparation of biodiesel with different combination of oil and catalysts have been described. The technical tools and processes for monitoring the transesterification reactions like TLC, GC, HPLC, GPC, 1 H NMR and NIR have also been summarized. In addition, fuel properties and specifications provided by different countries are discussed. q
A Simple Engineering Technique to Improve Transesterification for Biodiesel Fuel Production
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING OF JAPAN, 2013
The transesteri cation of triglyceride with methanol using an alkali catalyst was experimentally measured, and the obtained equilibrium constants were analyzed by the van't Ho model. The constant for the conversion of triglyceride to diglyceride was the smallest. The standard enthalpies of formation in the transesteri cation were measured to be positive, i.e., the reaction is endothermic. Next, the transesteri cation using the countercurrent multistage reactor system was computationally simulated with the equilibrium stage model, in which the equilibrium constants obtained above were used. The concentrations of the triglyceride remaining in the biodiesel fuel product drastically decreased by the reactor staging, and consequently the reaction temperature and the required amount of methanol could be reduced. The transesteri cation by the countercurrent multistage reactor was found to be attractive because of the e cient production of the biodiesel fuel.
International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, 2013
The development and measured performance of a batch reactor for biodiesel production from fresh and waste vegetable oils as feedstock is presented. A biodiesel batch reactor was fabricated using locally sourced materials. Three different transesterification reactions were performed on the feedstocks using the fabricated reactor. The reaction temperature and time were varied for the fresh and waste vegetable oils to determine the biodiesel yield. The yield of the biodiesel under these reaction conditions was at its maximum at the standard reaction temperature and time of 55°C and 50 minutes respectively, while the yield was least at a reaction temperature of 60°C. The yield of the by product (glycerol) was maximum at the reaction time and temperature of 70 minutes and 55°C respectively. The colour of the biodiesel from fresh vegetable oil was the clearest while that from waste vegetable oil 2 (WVO 2) was the cloudiest. Characterisation test results proved that the produced biodiesel has similar fuel properties with the conventional diesel and agrees with the ASTM standards for biodiesel. The outcomes of this work showed that biodiesel can be produced from various vegetable oils using the developed batch reactor.
BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM VEGETABLE OILS: AN OPTIMIZATION PROCESS
TJPRC, 2014
Biodiesel production has received considerable attention in the past as a biodegradable and non polluting fuel. The production of biodiesel by transesterification process employing alkali catalyst has been industrially accepted for its high conversion and reaction rates. The use of methoxide as a catalyst to perform the transestirification reaction into biodiesel in this work. The effect of the most relevant variables of the process such as reaction temperature, molar ratio between alcohol and oil, amount of catalyst and amount of free fatty acids fed with oil have been analyzed for this purpose, an ideal sunflower oil using lauric acid and palm oil, coconut oil also used. The alcohol used was methanol. Fats and oils are chemically reacted with alcohol to produce chemical compounds known as fatty acid methyester (Biodiesel). Glycerol, used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industry along with many other applications, is produced in this reaction as a product. The cost of biodiesel, however, is main hurdle in commercialization of the product. The used cooking oil as raw material, adoption of batch transesterification process and recovery of high quality glycerol from biodiesel product stream are primary option to be considered to lower the cost of biodiesel. There are four primary ways to make biodiesel, direct use and blending, micro emulsions, thermal cracking and transesterification. Transesterification reaction is effected by molar ratio of glycerides to alcohol, catalyst, reaction temperature, reaction time and free fatty acids water content of oils or fats .the process of transesterification and its downstream operations also addressed. The transesterification of free fatty acid using this homogeneous catalyst appears as a great alternative and producing high conversion around 98.2%.
International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, 2010
This research examines the transesterification reaction of soybean oil with methanol in order to model and simulate a non-ideal continuous stirred-tank reactor. A mathematical model has been developed for the reactor. The biodiesel production process was optimized by application of factorial design 25 and response surface methodology. Factorial design and response surface analysis were combined with modeling and simulation to determine the operating conditions that maximize biodiesel production and minimize reactor volume. The optimum results obtained were conversion (0.95), molar ratio alcohol/oil (6:1), temperature (60.5 oC), ? (0.75), bypass (0.10) and reactor volume (1,500 L).
In this study, modelling equations for the simulation of batch reactor functional dimensions at isothermal condition are proposed exploiting the transesterification kinetic of Olatunji et. al. (2012). The kinetic model proposed by Olatunji et. al. (2012) was obtained through the laboratory experiment on which Biodiesel was produced using alcohol to oil molar ratio of 6:1, 9:1 and 12:1; the reaction temperature was put at constant 500C, and the catalyst loading percentages is between 0.5% and 1.5% as proposed by Olatunji et. al. (2012). From the results obtained, the modelling equations proposed are capable of simulating reactor dimensions as a function of the kinetic parameters. The simulated results obtained was analysed with MATLAB programming language which has demonstrated the dependency of reactor dimensions as proposed by the kinetic parameters proposed by Olatunji et. al. (2012).