Effects on Biodiesel Production Caused by Feed Oil Changes in a Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor

Continuous production processes and an adequate supply of raw materials are necessary to satisfy the growing demand for biodiesel. The use of different feed oils could be necessary to ensure sufficient supply for biodiesel production in certain circumstances; however, changing feed oil during the op...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 992
Main Authors Castillo Gónzalez, Juan P., Álvarez Gutiérrez, Peggy E., Adam Medina, Manuel, López Zapata, Betty Y., Ramírez Guerrero, Gerardo V., Vela Valdés, Luis G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.02.2020
Subjects
Agricultural production
Biodiesel fuels
biodiesel production
Biofuels
Continuous production
continuous stirred-tank reactor
Continuously stirred tank reactors
Control systems
Diesel
different feedstock for biodiesel production
Disturbances
Economic analysis
Energy balance
Esters
Fatty acids
Feeds
first principle model
Glycerides
mass and energy balances
Mathematical models
Oils & fats
Physical properties
process disturbances
Raw materials
Reactors
Stability
transesterification kinetics
Vegetable oils
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Summary:Continuous production processes and an adequate supply of raw materials are necessary to satisfy the growing demand for biodiesel. The use of different feed oils could be necessary to ensure sufficient supply for biodiesel production in certain circumstances; however, changing feed oil during the operation of a continuous reactor causes process disturbances. The present study analyses the effect of feed oil changes on the continuous operation of a industrial continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) using a model which takes the dynamics of oil changes into account. The models previously reported only consider the operation of reactor with only one vegetable oil. The model in this work was developed by mass and energy balances. A methodology to model oil changes is presented. Glycerides and esters were characterized using adequate approaches. Moreover, accurate methods for predicting essential properties in the biodiesel manufacturing were used for the estimation of their thermo-physical properties. The kinetic parameters of the transesterifications were calculated from consistent studies selected from an exhaustive literature revision. The results show that temperature is practically not affected after oil changes; however, the ester concentration varies considerably. The ester mass fraction varying by up to 22.07% after an disturbance.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app10030992