Design and control of an energy integrated biodiesel process

This work presents the design and plantwide control of energy integrated biodiesel processes based on reactive distillation (RD) and reactive absorption (RA). In spite of the high degree of integration, the processes are well controllable using efficient control structures, as clearly shown by the results of rigorous simulations in Aspen Plus Dynamics. These heat-integrated RD and RA processes eliminate all conventional catalyst related operations, efficiently uses the raw materials and the reactor volume offering complete conversion of the fatty acids and allowing significant energy savings.