Energy requirement estimates for two step ethanolysis of waste vegetable oils for biodiesel production

Abstract

ChemCad 6.4 simulation package was used to model a two-step biodiesel production process from waste vegetable oils (WVO) and ethanol using homogeneous acid and alkali catalysts respectively. The developed process flowsheet consisted of pre-esterification and transesterification of WVO, ethanol and glycerol recovery, and biodiesel refining. The energy required for each processing unit as well as the energy required for the whole process have been estimated. Ethanol recovery accounted for the highest portion of the energy required for the entire process estimated as 2.75 MJ per kg of biodiesel produced