(64g) Novel Supercritical Biodiesel Plant Design and Process Scale-up

Current energy prices, national energy security, and global climate change continue our efforts to find efficient advanced fuels choices. Traditional biodiesel processes are Acid and base-catalyzed processes, they use traditional continuous stirred-tank type reactors, and have distillation schemes to separate material constituents. In past years, we tested a lab-scale no-catalyst supercritical biodiesel process using waste cooking oil and methanol as feed stock. Recently, we identified a noble separation mechanism to separate free fatty acids (FFA), FAME & Glycerol, and glycerol & methanol. We have also scaled up the continuous tubular reactor. The process plant has heat exchangers that are in networks and integrated into the plant loop.

A 1000 kg/day biodiesel plant will operate in a continuous operation and is made of eight modular nodes. These nodes are envisioned, designed, and simulated in Sketch up (3D design software). The process nodes are modular and easily transportable and connectable. Our vision is to transport in the back of the tractor-trailer. Mass and energy balances of major process units (separation, & reaction) are simulated using Aspen Plus^TM software. Our next steps include a comprehensive HAZOP study, control plan, bill of material, a production-ready P&ID, process simulation with Aspen Plus, and plant in a 3D sketch.