Preliminary Modified Biodiesel Production by Coupling Reactive distillation with a Steam Reformer via Aspen Plus®

Abstract

The conventional two-step biodiesel production process (esterification step followed by a transesterification step) from crude palm oil (CPO) has been carried out for years. However, the production cost from this process still cannot compete with fossil diesel. To reduce the capital and operating cost, the process should be modified by replacing both the reactor and the distillation column of the transesterification step with reactive distillation. In addition, glycerol, a by-product of the process, could convert to H2, a high value-added product, via a steam reformer to help reduce the biodiesel production cost. The energetic and economic possibility of the modified biodiesel production process was studied and simulated via Aspen Plus software in this work. The biodiesel production capacity from CPO (15 wt.% FFA) of ca.1, 000 kghr-1 employed from previous researches was considerably basis. The conventional and modified processes in terms of process utility and biodiesel production cost were compared. The simulation results show that the biodiesel cost from the modified process decreased by 40.85% compared to the conventional ones, because of the reduction of capital cost and selling H2. The result preliminarily confirmed that the modified biodiesel process was promising due to energy saving and economic concern.