Simulating a Versatile Plant for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

A versatile biodiesel production process that allows simulation of a plant that can produce biodiesel by transesterification of vegetable oils of any composition to methyl esters is proposed. The validity of the simulation was verified by producing biodiesel and glycerin from different amounts of algal oil feedstocks. The versatile model can be applied to different types of oils by changing only the input parameters. It provides a series of advantages not only in terms of resource and time saving when building a real plant, but also when selecting the most suitable feedstocks for biodiesel production.