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Analysis of alternative non-catalytic processes for the production of biodiesel fuel

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Abstract

One of the most common supercritical processes for the production of biodiesel fuel involves the use of methanol as reactant. Besides obtaining biodiesel fuel, glycerol is also produced. To avoid the production of glycerol as by-product, alternative reactants for the production of the biofuel have been proposed in recent years. As expected, the use of different reactants may have an impact on the separation processes required to obtain biodiesel fuel complying with international standards. Thus, in this work flowsheets for the different supercritical processes for the production of biodiesel are proposed and analyzed in a simulation environment. The analyzed processes are then compared in terms of energy requirements, total annual costs, and environmental impact. It has been found that the two-step processes show advantages in terms of CO2 emissions, but in terms of total annual cost the one-step processes are better, showing potential for low CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, the processes in one-step (with methanol or methyl acetate) result in lower CO2 emissions and TAC if they are operated at lower temperature. Acetic acid process is the more energy-intensive and expensive of the four processes.

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Abbreviations

r i (mol of component i/s):

Reaction rate for component i

k j (1/s):

kinetic constant for reaction j

C i (mol/L):

Molar concentration of component i

HE:

Heating efficiency

Q prod (kJ/h):

Heat produced by the fuel

Q req (kJ/h):

Heat required to produce the fuel

TAC (USD/year):

Total annual cost

CC (USD):

Capital cost

OC (USD/year):

Operation cost

n (years):

Payback period

A :

Pre-exponential factor

E a (kJ/kmol):

Activation energy

Q T (MJ/h):

Total thermal energy requirements

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support provided by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT), Programa para el Desarrollo Profesional Docente (PRODEP), and Universidad de Guanajuato (México).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. División de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad de Guanajuato, Campus Guanajuato, Noria Alta S/N, 36050, Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Fernando Israel Gómez-Castro, Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernández, Salvador Hernández, Irene Cano-Rodríguez & Zeferino Gamiño-Arroyo

  2. Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Av. Tecnológico y García Cubas S/N, 38010, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Vicente Rico-Ramírez

  3. Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Facultad de Química, Cerro de las Campanas S/N, Las Campanas, 76010, Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico

    Claudia Gutiérrez-Antonio

  4. Exxerpro Solutions, Av. del Sol 1B Interior 4B, Plaza Comercial El Sol, 76134, Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico

    Abel Briones-Ramírez

Authors
  1. Fernando Israel Gómez-Castro
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  2. Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernández
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  3. Salvador Hernández
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  4. Vicente Rico-Ramírez
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  5. Claudia Gutiérrez-Antonio
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  6. Abel Briones-Ramírez
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  7. Irene Cano-Rodríguez
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  8. Zeferino Gamiño-Arroyo
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Correspondence to Fernando Israel Gómez-Castro.

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Gómez-Castro, F.I., Segovia-Hernández, J.G., Hernández, S. et al. Analysis of alternative non-catalytic processes for the production of biodiesel fuel. Clean Techn Environ Policy 17, 2041–2054 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-015-0933-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-015-0933-x

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