Techno-Economic Analysis of an Alkali Catalyzed Biodiesel Production Using Waste Palm Oil

Abstract

In this contribution, we present an in-depth analysis of an alkali catalyzed biodiesel production using waste palm oil. In view of the limited availability of non-renewable energy sources and the environmental concerns due to the high polluting nature of fossil fuels, biodiesel is seen as a future fuel alternative. We consider a waste palm oil with 6 % free fatty acids as a feedstock, which makes this process economically attractive. A complete process including esterification and transesterification is simulated using the Aspen Plus process simulator. The quality of a produced biodiesel is compared against different standards. In the subsequent part, the effect free fatty acid in feed oil on the overall biodiesel production is tested. In the last section of this paper, a techno-economic analysis and the scale-up study is carried out to determine the dependence of the feasibility of process on production capacity. The results show that higher capacity is desirable.