Exergy analysis of biodiesel production process from vegetable oil using aspen plus

Abstract

Biodiesel is a good alternative to fulfill the demand for fossil fuels because of its properties, such as lower carbon footprint, nontoxicity, and biodegradability. The biodiesel production process is a highly energy-intensive process in view of cost. So there is a need to improve it in cost-effective and low energy and material consumption way. The pursuit of energy-efficient design has led to exergy because it can determine the process's true thermodynamic potential and cause of energy degradation in the process. This work performed exergy analysis on a biodiesel production plant from vegetable oil in an integrated Aspen plus and Excel. Using the Aspen Plus property package EXERGYFL, the physical exergy of the plant was calculated, and an integrated environment of Aspen Plus. For better quality analysis process is divided into three sections; transesterification and ethanol recovery, water washing and Fame production, and glycerol recovery. Then exergy destruction, exergy efficiencies, and exergetic improvement potential of the plant and sections were calculated which is 525.02kW, 32.59% and 353.89kW.