Abstract

RAMOS-ABRIL, JENNYFER; CORTES-GOMEZ, JUAN  and  MARRIAGA-CABRALES, NILSON. BIODIESEL FROM BIOETHANOL AND PALM OIL. TECHNO-ECONOMIC STUDY. Dyna rev.fac.nac.minas [online]. 2010, vol.77, n.164, pp.264-273. ISSN 0012-7353.

Biodiesel has become a technologic choice to decrease the fossil fuel consumption. Vegetal oils transesterification with methanol is the more used pathway, from the commercial viewpoint, due to the high conversion of triglycerides and the availability and price of alcohol. Methanol is generated essentially from a fossil fuel like methane; whereas bioethanol is renewable and because of this, its use would represent a better environmental option. The techno-economic prefeasibility of the biodiesel production, by using bioethanol and palm oil like raw materials, was analyzed. Two processes (acid and alkaline catalysis) were studied by using the Aspen Plus simulator software. The biodiesel was simulated by taking the ethyl oleate as the representative molecule, and the properties of the mixture were established by fitting the NRTL model from the experimental data of the liquid-liquid equilibrium. The process would become profitable by implementing the homogenous acid catalytic pathway (H₂SO₄) whenever the conversion is higher than 95%.

Keywords : Biodiesel; bioethanol; ethyl oleate; transesterification; prefeasibility..

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