SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF CONTINUOUS BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM SOYBEAN OIL

Abstract

It is known that oil and its derivatives were the main energetics of the last century, although the fact that these inputs are finite and generate several pollutant harmful to human health and the environment. Economic and environmental aspects have contributed to the gradual disuse of fossil fuels and to the growth of research on renewable and clean energy, such as biodiesel, that has been gaining representativeness in the national and world market. Brazilian biodiesel production has been led by soybean oil for many years, then, aiming to make the simulation of the biodiesel plant closer to the brazilian reality (based on biodiesel process described by Zhang et al., 2003)  the raw material (triolein) was changed to (trilinolein) through the use of the predictive methods of Constantinou e Gani (1994) and (1995) to estimate base and critical properties. Besides, a kinetic equation based on the experimental data of Noureddini and Zhu (1997) was proposed to represent the rate of soybean transesterification in function of temperature. Finally, optimization studies were made with the objective of maximizing biodiesel production; minimize the consumption of energy and inputs; outline great scenarios from the environmental perspective. The optimization results indicated that the temperature of the conversion reactor has a great influence on the biodiesel production due to the linear relationship. In addition, the change in the flow of water inserted in the liquid-liquid extractor is insignificant in view of the influence of the reactor temperature.It is known that oil and its derivatives were the main energetics of the last century, although the fact that these inputs are finite and generate several pollutant harmful to human health and the environment. Economic and environmental aspects have contributed to the gradual disuse of fossil fuels and to the growth of research on renewable and clean energy, such as biodiesel, that has been gaining representativeness in the national and world market. Brazilian biodiesel production has been led by soybean oil for many years, then, aiming to make the simulation of the biodiesel plant closer to the brazilian reality (based on biodiesel process described by Zhang et al., 2003)  the raw material (triolein) was changed to (trilinolein) through the use of the predictive methods of Constantinou e Gani (1994) and (1995) to estimate base and critical properties. Besides, a kinetic equation based on the experimental data of Noureddini and Zhu (1997) was proposed to represent the rate of soybean transesterification in function of temperature. Finally, optimization studies were made with the objective of maximizing biodiesel production; minimize the consumption of energy and inputs; outline great scenarios from the environmental perspective. The optimization results indicated that the temperature of the conversion reactor has a great influence on the biodiesel production due to the linear relationship. In addition, the change in the flow of water inserted in the liquid-liquid extractor is insignificant in view of the influence of the reactor temperature.