OP-II-3

PP-III-61BIODIESEL FROM MICROALGAE OIL PRODUCTION IN TWOSEQUENTIAL ESTERIFICATION/TRANSESTERIFICATIONREACTORS: PINCH ANALYSIS OF HEAT INTEGRATIONEduardo Sánchez 1 , Karina Ojeda 1 , Viatcheslav Kafarov 1 ,Mahmoud El-Halwagi 21 Industrial University of Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia,sancheztuiran@gmail.com2 Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USABiodiesel production from non-edible sources have been extensively studied [1-5]. As biodiesel is obtained by means of the transesterification of the triglycerides ofthe oils, there are some cases in which the high content of free fatty acids makes theoil too acid making the basic transesterification no longer the best alternative. Suchcases are quite frequent when waste vegetable oils (WVO’s) are used as rawmaterial or when new non-edible high-acidic value oil sources, like microalgae oil, areused. In such cases, before the basic transesterification takes place there is thepossibility to esterify the free fatty acids of the oil, so fatty acid alkyl esters and waterare obtained and separated, so then the basic transesterification of the triglycerideswill take place more conveniently [6].To achieve this sequential design, some heat transfer operations must beenperformed in order to increase the production and quality of the desired products. So,in this work, a heat integration by means of a pinch analysis of the process streamsis made in order to reduce both the external heating and cooling services. Energeticrequirements with and without heat integration are compared. Aspen Plus 2006.5 TMsoftware is used to simulate the esterification-transesterification process. Themicroalgae C. Vulgaris oil is used as raw material for the biodiesel production. Dataaccording to microalgae oil composition and properties were obtained from literature[7]. Finaly we will discuss about several alternatives in order to improve the energeticefficiency of the process.References[1]. Al-Widyan MI, Al-Shyoukh AO. Experimental evaluation of the transesterification of waste palm oilinto biodiesel. Bioresour Technol 2002;85:253–6.[2]. Al-Widyan MI, Tashtoush G, Abu-Qudais M. Utilization of ethyl ester of waste vegetable oils asfuel in diesel engines. Fuel Process Technol 2002;76:91–103.[3]. Cayh G, Selim K. Increased yields in biodiesel production from used cooking oils by a two stepprocess: Comparison with one step process by using TGA. Fuel Process Technol2008;89(2):118–22.551