Resumen

CAMPOS-RAMIREZ, Leonardo; PEREZ-SANCHEZ, Amaury; BENITEZ-LEGRA, Aylín  y  BENITEZ, Isnel. Techno-Economic Study of Two Biodiesel Production Technologies from Soybean Oil Using Superpro Designer Simulator. TecnoL. [online]. 2020, vol.23, n.48, pp.117-139. ISSN 0123-7799.  https://doi.org/10.22430/22565337.1568.

In this work, a preliminary technical-economic study of two technological proposals of biodiesel production was carried out employing soybean oil as the main raw material and under the current economic conditions of Brazil. For that the simulator SuperPro Designer® v.8.5 is used. In the first technology (Base Case) refined biodiesel and crude glycerol are obtained, while in the second (Variant) refined biodiesel is also produced, and the crude glycerol is purified to a final purity of 99.75 %. A sensitivity study consisting of 12 runs was carried out, through which the influence of five input variables on three economic indicators was evaluated: Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Payback Time (PT). USD $ 18.5 million and USD $ 21.4 million must be invested to erect the Base Case and the Variant, respectively. The results of the NPV, IRR and PT for the Base Case were USD $ 17,444,000, 33.83 % and 2.54 years respectively, while the values obtained from these 3 indicators for the Variant were USD $ 22,577,000, 38.05 % and 2.26 years respectively, which indicate that the Variant is the most cost-effective technology. The introduction of glycerol purification operations increases the economic and profitability indicators of the biodiesel production plant. The sensitivity study allowed obtaining equations that establish the statistical correlation between five input variables and three output parameters. Statgraphics Centurion® software version XVI was used for the statistical processing of the results obtained.

Palabras clave : Soybean oil; sensitivity analysis; biodiesel; glycerol; SuperPro Designer.

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