Plantwide Control of a Biodiesel Process by Reactive Absorption

doi:10.1016/S1570-7946(10)28090-2

Computer Aided Chemical Engineering

Volume 28, 2010, Pages 535-540

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1570-7946(10)28090-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Integrated biodiesel processes based on reactive separations powered by solid acid/base catalysts are available nowadays, offering significant advantages such as minimal capital investment and operating costs, as well as no catalyst-related waste streams and no soap formation. However, the controllability of the process is just as important as the capital and operating savings. In such processes the small number of degrees of freedom is a drawback which makes it difficult to set the reactants feed ratio correctly and consequently to avoid impurities in the products. This work considers the process control of biodiesel production by reactive absorption, the main result being an efficient control structure that ensures the stoichiometric ratio of reactants. Moreover, the excess of methanol operating constraint that is necessary for the total conversion of the fatty acids and for prevention of the difficult separations is fulfilled. Rigorous simulations were performed using Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics as efficient computer aided process engineering tools.

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Cited by (4)

Multiobjective optimal design for biodiesel sustainable production
2014, Fuel
Citation Excerpt :
The biodiesel price is expected to reduce, due to larger scale economies – and agricultural subsidies – versus the rising cost of petroleum as fossil-fuel reserves are depleted [20,24]. The reaction temperature, reaction time, alcohol to oil ratio and catalyst amount and type [26–29] are important parameters in biodiesel production. The trans-esterification reaction can be catalyzed through a number of different methods: homogeneous alkali [30], homogeneous acid [31], supercritical alcohol with no catalyst [32], and via heterogeneous catalysts.
Biodiesel is the most common and most investigated of the alternative diesel fuels due to it presents many important technical advantages compared to petro-diesel. The major difficulty to biodiesel commercialization is its high cost, which is approximately 1.5 times higher than petroleum diesel fuel, due to the cost of vegetable oil. Beside alternate catalysts and reaction schemes, other methods to reduce the production cost of biodiesel has included feedstock substitution. However, biodiesel from some feedstock like oil crops is not sustainable because of the increasing food price, decreased agriculture land, and depletion of soil. Therefore, biodiesel production is confronted with two main tasks: cost reduction and ecological restrictions. Also, beside these objectives, the social involvements of biodiesel production and use must not be neglected. The best decisions regarding all these aspects imply solving multiobjective optimization problems. As an example, a case study concerning with optimal economical (maximization of the net profit), environmental (minimization of VOC emissions) and social (maximization of the number of chemical operators’ jobs) design of the biodiesel production from soybean oil is presented. This multiobjective optimization problem was solved by process simulation with SuperPro Designer and process optimization with a Matlab Genetic Algorithm. The link between Matlab and SuperPro Designer has been accomplished by a Matlab graphical user interface based on COM technology. From the obtained Pareto fronts, the optimal compromise solutions can be selected.
Multiobjective optimal design for biodiesel sustainable production
2014, Fuel
Citation Excerpt :
The biodiesel price is expected to reduce, due to larger scale economies – and agricultural subsidies – versus the rising cost of petroleum as fossil-fuel reserves are depleted [20,24]. The reaction temperature, reaction time, alcohol to oil ratio and catalyst amount and type [26–29] are important parameters in biodiesel production. The trans-esterification reaction can be catalyzed through a number of different methods: homogeneous alkali [30], homogeneous acid [31], supercritical alcohol with no catalyst [32], and via heterogeneous catalysts.
Biodiesel is the most common and most investigated of the alternative diesel fuels due to it presents many important technical advantages compared to petro-diesel. The major difficulty to biodiesel commercialization is its high cost, which is approximately 1.5 times higher than petroleum diesel fuel, due to the cost of vegetable oil. Beside alternate catalysts and reaction schemes, other methods to reduce the production cost of biodiesel has included feedstock substitution. However, biodiesel from some feedstock like oil crops is not sustainable because of the increasing food price, decreased agriculture land, and depletion of soil. Therefore, biodiesel production is confronted with two main tasks: cost reduction and ecological restrictions. Also, beside these objectives, the social involvements of biodiesel production and use must not be neglected. The best decisions regarding all these aspects imply solving multiobjective optimization problems. As an example, a case study concerning with optimal economical (maximization of the net profit), environmental (minimization of VOC emissions) and social (maximization of the number of chemical operators’ jobs) design of the biodiesel production from soybean oil is presented. This multiobjective optimization problem was solved by process simulation with SuperPro Designer and process optimization with a Matlab Genetic Algorithm. The link between Matlab and SuperPro Designer has been accomplished by a Matlab graphical user interface based on COM technology. From the obtained Pareto fronts, the optimal compromise solutions can be selected.
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