Biodiesel from Sunflower Oil: Development of Process Model via Lab scale Experiment and Optimisation

In recent years, biodiesel has become increasingly interesting as a more sustainable energy resource and as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. This paper presents and discusses a biodiesel process model with the support of experimental activity where biodiesel is produced from sunflower oil by methanolysis using potassium hydroxide as catalyst. Although the kinetic mechanism is well known, the kinetic rate constants from the literature do not correlate well with the experimental data. Therefore, a model based parameter estimation technique is used to determine the kinetic parameters. The model is then used for optimising the reaction temperature to maximise the conversion for a given batch time. The energy required for the process at lab-scale is estimated by a heat balance, which is found to be increasing with the conversion. Finally, by adopting realistic assumptions, a scale-up for possible full-scale plant production is carried out and the optimal conditions for the whole process are obtained.