Sustainable approach for the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil using static mixer technology

Abstract

This paper aims at designing a large scale plant for the production of biodiesel using 150,000 ton/yr of waste cooking oil produced from various hotels, fast food restaurants, and domestic areas in the UAE. The transestrification reaction considered takes place at 60 °C, 400 KPa, methanol/oil mole ratio of 6:1, 1wt% KOH and is carried in four parallel PFR each having an arrangement similar to shell and tube heat exchanger (1 shell and 2 passes & 200 tubes per pass) with static mixing elements inserted in each tube to achieve enhanced mixing even under laminar flow conditions. A detailed equipment design for the proposed flowsheet used for this process, its economic feasibility and profitability analysis is thoroughly done. The profit from biodiesel production along with glycerol as a byproduct is found to be $142,877,092 for a ten year project life. Using 5% tax rate for UAE, the discounted profitability analysis showed a payback period of 6 years and with a rate of return of 39%.

keywords: Biodiesel synthesis; Feasibility; Static mixers; Sustainability; Used cooking oil; Waste minimization