Biodiesel production from algal oil — A simulation study

Author

Jabbar, Nabil Abdel ; Aidan, Ahmad ; Razouk, Heba ; Chihadih, Nasser ; Faraghat, Shabnam ; El-Tal, Youssef

Author_Institution

Dept. of Chem. Eng., American Univ. of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

fYear

2014

fDate

25-27 March 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

Process simulation using ASPEN Plus is carried out to model a two-stage alkali catalyzed transesterification reaction for converting micro algal oil to biodiesel. A 6:1 methanol to algal oil feed ratio is assumed using NaOH as a catalyst at 60 °C reaction temperature, which results in almost 99 % biodiesel yield for the trans-esterification reaction. Product quality is assessed and compared with market bio-diesel and petro-diesel. It is shown that this project is technically feasible, which makes algal oil a much more competitive substitute to food-based plant oils.

Keywords

bioenergy conversion; biofuel; catalysts; oxygen compounds; sodium compounds; vegetable oils; ASPEN Plus; NaOH; catalyst; food-based plant oils; market biodiesel; methanol to algal oil feed ratio; micro algal oil; petrodiesel; process simulation; product quality; temperature 60 C; two-stage alkali catalyzed transesterification reaction; Biofuels; Biological system modeling; Conductivity; Feeds; Heating; Inductors; Methanol; Aspen Plus; Transesteriflcation; biofuel; biomass;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Renewable Energy Congress (IREC), 2014 5th International

Conference_Location

Hammamet

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-2196-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IREC.2014.6827022

Filename

6827022