Process design of biodiesel production from rapeseed oil

An integrated design for biodiesel production process from rapeseed vegetable oil is developed. The acid-catalyzed pre-treatment achieves total conversion of free fatty acids and partial conversion of triglycerides. This is followed by an alkali-catalyzed step where high conversion of triglycerides is achieved. Compared to other designs, each operation which is common to both steps is performed in one unit, leading to smaller investment cost. Future work will consider the design and simulation of biodiesel production using kinetic models of the esterification and transesterification reaction. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering-7 and the 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA (Prague, Czech Republic 8/28/2010-9/1/2010).