Novel Design for Simultaneous Production of Biodiesel and Glycerol Carbonate from Soybean Oil

Abstract

Glycerol is the byproduct of biodiesel production plants. The rapid increase of biodiesel production and demand has resulted in excessive glycerol supply in the market. Converting the cheap glycerol into high-value glycerol carbonate (GC) is a potentially valuable solution to the current worldwide excessive glycerol supply. In this paper, a novel process for simultaneous production of biodiesel and GC (SBDG meanwhile, the byproduct of GC production, methanol, is recycled as the feedstock of the biodiesel production. Second, the optimization of the columns duties has been performed via thermal analysis analyzing the Column Grand Composite Curves (CGCC). In addition, a mathematic model for the heat integration of the SBD&...