Screening of sustainable biodiesel production pathways during process research and development (R&D) stage using fuzzy optimization (original) (raw)
Related papers
2014
Biodiesel is regarded as an important renewable fuel for meeting the global future energy demand and resolving the environmental problems (e.g. global warming). Despite its known advantages, it is still very critical to assess the sustainability of biodiesel production prior to greater expansion for commercialisation. Early hazard assessment when the process is still under development and design is very beneficial as process modifications to eliminate or reduce hazards can be made easier at lower costs. In this paper, inherent safety, health and environment (SHE) and economic performance (EP) analysis is conducted for biodiesel production during the earliest process lifecycle which is named as research and development (R&D) stage. Prior to the assessment, eight biodiesel production pathways via base-catalysed, acid-catalysed, enzymatic and supercritical transesterification using fresh or waste oil are classified. The inherent SHE assessments are conducted using the renowned methods of the Prototype Index of Inherent Safety (PIIS), Inherent Occupational Health Index (IOHI) and Inherent Environmental Toxicity Hazard (IETH) for inherent safety, health and environmental friendliness, respectively. The EP assessment is done using a proposed costing assessment based on operating cost and revenue. A systematic framework for assessing alternative biodiesel production pathways during the R&D stage is presented. Fuzzy optimisation approach is used to assess the pathway candidates based on multiple objectives of inherent SHE and EP. From the assessment result, it is found that biodiesel production based on enzymatic transesterification using waste oil is the most desirable pathway. Following the result of the assessments, several improvement actions for inherent SHE in biodiesel production are proposed and discussed.
Sustainability evaluation of biodiesel production using multicriteria decision-making
Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, 2009
Higher crude-oil prices, increases in energy imports, concerns about petroleum supplies, and greater recognition of environmental consequences of fossil fuels have spurred a search for alternative sources of fuel. In the aspect of choosing an appropriate source for a long-term development, it is necessary to decide which is the most sustainable. This article describes a systematic method based on Analytical Hierarchical Process technique to compare biodiesel feedstock alternatives on technical, economical, and sustainable aspects throughout life cycles of biodiesel production. Five biodiesel feedstocks which are jatropha, algae, palm oil, rapeseed, and soybean are taken into consideration in a quantified evaluation. Among these alternatives and with a recommended scoring structure, biodiesel from algae is shown in the calculation results to be the highest ranking substitute for diesel fuel due to its overall better performance in the aspects of environment, economical, safety, raw material performance, and fuel performance. 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers En
Systematic Sustainable Process Design and Analysis of Biodiesel Processes
Processes, 2013
Biodiesel is a promising fuel alternative compared to traditional diesel obtained from conventional sources such as fossil fuel. Many flowsheet alternatives exist for the production of biodiesel and therefore it is necessary to evaluate these alternatives using defined criteria and also from process intensification opportunities. This work focuses on three main aspects that have been incorporated into a systematic computer-aided framework for sustainable process design. First, the creation of a generic superstructure, which consists of all possible process alternatives based on available technology. Second, the evaluation of this superstructure for systematic screening to obtain an appropriate base case design. This is done by first reducing the search space using a sustainability analysis, which provides key indicators for process bottlenecks of different flowsheet configurations and then by further reducing the search space by using economic evaluation and life cycle assessment. Third, the determination of sustainable design with/without process intensification using a phenomena-based synthesis/design method. A detailed step by step application of the framework is highlighted through a biodiesel production case study.
Fuzzy Logic Application in Process Modeling of Biodiesel Reactor
2013
The transesterification reaction is actually replacement of alcohol group from an ester by another alcohol. The reaction was carried out by varying different parameters, like amount of catalyst in reaction, ratio of methyl alcohol to oil, temperature and stirring on the reaction; to find the best conversion of oil to biodiesel. In this paper fuzzy logic is applied to the transesterification reaction studies and the result is compared with the experimental results.
Biodiesel Reactor Modeling Using Fuzzy Logic
2013
Transesterification reaction is reaction carried out by varying different parameters, like ratio of methyl alcohol to oil, amount of catalyst in reaction, temperature and stirring on the reaction; to find the beat conversion of oil to biodiesel. This reaction is replacement of alcohol group from an ester by another alcohol. Fuzzy logic is applied to the transesterification reaction studies and the result is compared with experimental results.
Bioenergy II: Modeling and Multi-Objective Optimization of Different Biodiesel Production Processes
International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, 2010
One of the most promising renewable fuels proposed as an alternative to fossil fuels is biodiesel. The competitive potential of biodiesel is limited by the price of vegetable oils, which strongly influences the final price of biofuels, but an appropriate planning and design of the whole production process, from the seed to the biodiesel end product is essential to contain the fallout of energy inefficiencies in the high price of the end product. This study focuses on the characteristics of the production process currently used to produce biodiesel. The refined vegetable oil can be converted into biodiesel by means of a great variety of techniques and technologies, many of which are still not suitable for applications on industrial scale. The solution that has the greatest interest is homogeneous alkaline transesterification with KOH and methanol. Even when we dealing with this type of conversion, it is impossible to establish a universal pattern to describe the conversion or purification stages because there are various possible solutions that make every systems different from each other. When we then look more closely at the state of the art in industrial biodiesel production plants, we encounter the potential problems introduced by the type and characteristics of the raw materials. Comparing some of the reference solutions that have inspired numerous installations, a statistical sensitivity analysis is conducted using ASPENPLUS , after the identification of the main parameters in each process. The statistical sensitivity analysis has been carried out by a multi-objective genetic algorithm optimization, to define the configurations of the main parameters that guarantee the best trade off between the maximization of some important compound purity and minimization of energy requirements in the process. The results of this analysis was a Pareto frontier that identifies a family of configurations that define the best trade off between the objectives. From the Pareto frontiers we have then selected the configuration that require the minimum consumption of energy. There is between these optimal configurations a configuration which require a specific energy consumption, for PROCESS-I of 2.7 MJ/kg and 1.5 MJ/kg for PROCESS-II. The biodiesel obtained from these two different layout, dealing with the requirements given by the UNI EN 14214, the methanol recycled has a purity higher than 97% by weight and glycerol a purity higher than 90 %.
Renewable Energy, 2009
Diesel engines are frequently employed in industries, transport and agriculture. The rapid consumption of fossil fuel in the transportation sector compels a search for alternative sources of fuel for internal combustion engines. Lower volatility, unsaturated fats and higher viscosity of crude oil are major problems to use vegetable oil straight away as fuel. The present work aims to conduct the experiments with different proportions of Azadirachta indica oil with diesel. The biodiesel used for the experimentation is prepared by two-step transesterification process considering the optimized parameters such as reaction time and concentration of catalyst. With different trials, the reaction time (90 min) and the concentration of catalyst (1%) were finalized. Experiments were conducted on a variable compression ratio diesel engine to determine various performance parameters and its exhaust emissions for different blend proportions at various loads. The brake thermal efficiency of biodiesel blends is very similar to that of diesel up to partial loads. Higher brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) is noticed for biodiesel blends than mineral diesel. At maximum load, BSFC is the same for all percentage of blends along with mineral diesel. The exhaust emissions such as CO and UHC are lower for different blends, while NO x emission is more. By analyzing all the results with different blends of Azadirachta indica biodiesel, it is evident that it can be used as a promising alternative fuel for a diesel engine without further modifications in engine adjustments. Uncertainty analysis and repeatability tests were performed to check the accuracy of the results.
Bulletin of Chemical Reaction …, 2011
Biodiesel is a biodegradable source of fuel that can be synthesised from edible, non-edible and waste oils through transesterification process. In this paper, we presented transesterification reaction of Jatropha Curcas oil by using sodium hydroxide catalyst at 150°C in batch reactor. Further, we designed the fuzzy model of the molar ratio and the performance evaluated by comparing fuzzy model with batch kinetic data. Fuzzy models were developed using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). It is observed that in batch operation molar ratio have a significant effect on product formation and higher molar ratio push the reaction into forward direction to attain the chemical equilibrium. [
This work focused on the application of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and response surface methodology (RSM) as predictive tools for production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) from yellow oleander (Thevetia peruviana) seed oil. Two-step transesterification method was adopted, in the first step, the high free fatty acid (FFA) content of the oil was reduced to <1% by treating it with ferric sulfate in the presence of methanol. While in the second step, the pretreated oil was converted to FAME by reacting it with methanol using sodium methoxide as catalyst. To model the second step, central composite design was employed to study the effect of catalyst loading (1-2 wt.%), methanol/oil molar ratio (6:1-12:1) and time (20-60 min) on the T. peruviana methyl esters (TPME) yield. The reduction of FFA of the oil to 0.65 ± 0.05 wt.% was realized using ferric sulfate of 3 wt.%, methanol/FFA molar ratio of 9:1 and reaction time of 40 min. The model developed for the transesterification process by ANFIS (coefficient of determination, R 2 = 0.9999, standard error of prediction, SEP = 0.07 and mean absolute percentage deviation, MAPD = 0.05%) was significantly better than that of RSM (R 2 = 0.9670, SEP = 1.55 and MAPD = 0.84%) in terms of accuracy of the predicted TPME yield. For maximum TPME yield, the transesterification process input variables were optimized using genetic algorithm (GA) coupled with the ANFIS model and RSM optimization tool. TPME yield of 99.8 wt.% could be obtained with the combination of 0.79 w/v catalyst loading, 12.5:1 methanol/oil molar ratio and time of 58.2 min using ANFIS-GA in comparison to TPME yield of 98.8 wt.% using RSM. The TPME structure was characterized using Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The results of this work established the superiority of predictive capability of ANFIS over RSM.
Optimization of process parameters of biodiesel production from different kinds of feedstock
Materials Today: Proceedings, 2018
An experimental study has been carried out to produce biodiesel from different kinds of feedstock. Operating parameters have been optimized with respect to percentage yield of production and viscosity. The most common method for production of biodiesel is transesterification. Palm, karanja, mahua, linseed and castor oil are among the few of the non-edible oils. Along with this waste cooking oil can also be considered as non-edible oil as it is mostly thrown away. The process of transesterification depends on various factors like reaction temperature, stirring rate, molar ratio, amount of catalyst and reaction time. Depending upon the acid value, the number of steps of transesterification was determined. If free fatty acid is greater than 2.5% then two step transesterificaton is carried out. Karanja and mahua oil undergo two-step process because of high FFA content. The main objective of the study was to optimize the reaction parameters for production of biodiesel from different kinds of oil based on kinematic viscosity and percentage of yield obtained.