Biodiesel production using calcium‐based catalyst from venus shell: Modeling of startup production in an industrial reactor

Abstract

Calcium oxide‐based catalyst was produced from Venus shell by fast fluidized bed calcination for biodiesel synthesis. The kinetics of biodiesel synthesis was found to be a pseudo‐first‐order reaction at the experimental conditions. The obtained kinetic parameters were used for modeling the startup operation of biodiesel production in an industrial continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The model was found to agree well with the reagent concentration and temperature profiles in a real production practice during biodiesel production. The variations of initial temperature, initial reagent concentration in the reactor was investigated. It was found that the reagent concentration and temperature oscillated around the final steady state. From safety operation perspective, the first 4 h were found to be the most unsteady period during continuous production. The initial concentration of waste fry oil (WFO) was also found to be critical to the safe operation of CSTR. A violation of the settings for safe operation of CSTR will be triggered once the initial concentration of WFO in CSTR reaches 500 mol m−3. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38:e13053, 2019