Bio-ethanol producing possibility from waste glycerin

Abstract

There is an effective and recommended way of using waste glycerol, as a byproduct during biodiesel production. It is processing through fermentation that brings into reality bio ethanol obtaining by the development of the valuable and different reactions and processes such as the anaerobic fermentation resulting except bio-ethanol also the succinic 144 acid as useful chemical compound. We have considered in this study, the processing of these waste glycerol derived by the biodiesel industry includes some steps. The need for these technological waste processing is important, not only for environmental reasons, but also for obtaining profitable chemicals that brings economic improvement, because from the biodiesel industry, a considerable amount of glycerol is produced as a secondary byproduct. That is why it is meaningful to design or configure a treatment process tendentious for structuring a cycle which begins with the preparation of feed stream for the pretreatment of glycerol, followed by anaerobic fermentation producing ethanol and succinic acid. This process is then followed by the separation of desired products and later, Ethanol produced in that way was denatured with gasoline and reach a purity depending on final destination of the research. The Aspen Plus computer software was used for process modeling and design. Through the simulation were firstly calculated mass, energy balances and also has been made the process economic evaluations. Main purpose of the simulation performed were establishing two different tentative flow sheets or process diagram, starting by treating the amount raw material of 1000 kg/h and 10000 kg/h, respectively. Then we have compared the results of both types of technological schemes in order to find the most suitable and economical justified methods. All indicating parameters were strongly depended on the operational conditions defined by the predicted yield of the biodiesel production in Albania.