SIMULATION, PROCESS MODELING AND PRODUCT DESIGN OF BIODIESEL MANUFACTURING
02 - Biodiesel
1 GISELE CRISTINA RABELO SILVA
1 UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SÃO JOÃO DEL-REI
The identification of low-cost raw materials, including mixtures of various sources, either raw or recycled raw materials, and the development of simulation models able to predict the conditions of production and the properties of the components may be the way to obtaining economically viable biofuels. A simulation model of the biodiesel production process through methanol and ethanol transesterification's reaction was created, in which vegetable oils were characterized based on the estimated properties. The plant performance was analyzed by including the kinetics of the reactions and phase equilibrium. The main processing units include reactors, distillation columns, extraction columns, heat exchangers, pumps and separators. Aspen Plus v.8.0 was used to conduct the simulation. The first steps in developing the process simulation were selecting the chemical components for the process, as well as a thermodynamic model. Additionally, unit operations and operating conditions, plant capacity and input conditions must all be selected and specified. Multi-stage distillation was used for methanol (ethanol) recovery as well as purification of both the FAME and glycerine products. After the input information and operating unit models were set up, the process steady-state simulation was executed by Aspen Plus. The virtual oils were tested within a same simulation layout in order to compare the energetically the raw material sources. Mass and energy balances for each unit, as well as operating conditions, were obtained, the flow chart of the process by simulation and the comparison of biofuels properties obtained after the simulation run. The results of the simulations indicated the technical feasibility of producing biodiesel that meets the standards required by regulation, such as density, ester content and cetane number. The modeling methodology is an efficient tool to evaluate and optimize the performance of biodiesel production.
Keywords: acrocomia aculeata, biodiesel, simulation, aspen
