Development of a software tool for in silico biodiesel production from rapeseed oil

This paper introduces a computer program, based on a non-commercial software tool, meant for the prediction of biodiesel production and yield from various sources. The program uses Java Desktop Programming Environment with a user-friendly GUI interface. As a starting point of the development of this generic tool, rapeseed oil as a source of biofuel has been selected for a benchmark case to study the production and yield of biodiesel by four different processes. The various simulation results generated from the program, such as biodiesel production, storage and emissions are in general agreement with the experimental data obtained from the literature.