An Integrated Reactive Distillation Process for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

An integrated reactive distillation process for the production of biodiesel is proposed. The reactive separation process consists of two coupled reactive distillation columns considering the kinetically controlled reactions of esterification of the fatty acids (FFAs) and the trans-esterification of the tri-di and mono glycerides with methanol, respectively. The conceptual design of each reactive distillation column was performed through the construction of reactive residue curve maps in terms of elements. The design of the esterification reactive distillation column consisted of one reactive zone loaded with a solid catalyst (titanium oxide supported on silica TiO 2 /SiO 2 ) and for the trans-esterification reactive column two reactive zones loaded with solid catalyst (hydrotalcites (CHT) and MgO). Intensive simulation of the integrated reactive process including the complex kinetic expressions for the different reactions and the Cubic-Plus Association (CPA) thermodynamic model was performed using the computational environment of ASPEN Plus. Results showed that the amount of fatty acids (FFAs) and water in the oil fed play a key role on the performance of the trans-esterification reactive distillation column while for the esterification column is not significant.

CO2 process intensification of algae oil extraction to biodiesel

“…More rigorous simulations of reactive distillation should be carried out, but the process in Figure 1, which uses just five flash vessels should be more effective than reactive distillation. Also, without CO 2 , Perez‐Cisneros et al 28 used reactive distillation for reaction of oleic acid and triolein with methanol to form methyl oleate (biodiesel), glycerol, and water. They used the PC‐SAFT equation‐of‐state in ASPEN PLUS, but did not consider two liquid phases on the distillation stages.…”

Techno-economic Feasibility of Reactive Distillation for Biodiesel Production from Algal Oil: Comparing with a Conventional Multiunit System

“…It is a common convention to assume that the internal energy changes on the trays are much faster than the composition and total holdup changes. L n (g mol/min), the liquid flow rate leaving the n th tray, is calculated using the nonlinear Francis weir formula, given as (7) where the liquid flow rate (L), average molecular weight (MW avg ), average density (ρ avg ) of the liquid mixture, column diameter (D c ), weir height (W H ), weir length (W L ), and liquid tray holdup are in British units. Therefore, the liquid flow rate needs to be converted to metric units to be used in eqs 1−3.…”

“…6 Also, the exponential increase of transport vehicles and their dependency on liquid fuel requires increased production of biodiesel. 7 Importantly, the use of biodiesel can ensure almost-closed carbon cycles, and the emissions of CO 2 can be reduced by up to 78%. 8 In India, the National Biodiesel Mission set a target of 20% blending of biodiesel with petrodiesel by 2017.…”

Optimization of operational and design parameters of a Simultaneous Mixer-Separator for enhanced continuous biodiesel production

“…In their study on biodiesel production, Cheng et al tried modeling and simulation using a membrane reactor integrated with a pre-reactor [16]. Many researchers have recently taken notice of the reactive distillation method, which is widely used in both research and commercial applications because it carries fruitful advantage when compared to conventional sequential processes [17][18][19][20].…”