Process Design and Simulation of Biodiesel Production Line Using Jojoba Oil

Wael Abdelmoez^*1, Aghareed Tayeb^*1, Mohamed Abdelhamid¹

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, Elminia University,

61519 Elminia, Egypt

E-mail: drengwael2003@yahoo.com

*Corresponding author

Abstract

The use of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), produced from agricultural oils as a fuel in diesel engines has been proposed as an alternative to diesel from fossil resources. The several renewable sources and yet not widely known, jojoba seeds appears to be promising scope for cultivation in arid and semi arid areas. The Jojoba oil-wax is extracted from the seeds of the jojoba, which grows in semi desert areas in some parts of the world. The present work describes a process design and simulation for converting the Jojoba oil-wax to biodiesel by transesterification with methanol, catalyzed with potassium oxide (1.35wt% of the oil). The transesterification reactions have been carried out in a batch reactor at 25, 40 and 50 °C, with a molar ratio of methanol to oil of 6:1, and mixing with 600 rpm. The reaction conversion was found to be 83, 87, and 95% after 80, 50, and 25 min., respectively. The experimental data was used to build up and design a process for producing biodiesel (methyl jojoboate) with maximum attained conversion of 95%. Then, a complete design for the process including all down streams needed for purification and recovery has been developed and optimized using simulation software (ASPEN HYSIS 2006). According to this study, the maximum expected purification yields of methyl jojoboate as a final product, jojobyl alcohol and methanol recovery after fractionation process were found to be 99.14, 93.3 and 99.9% respectively.

Process Design and Simulation of Biodiesel Production Line Using Jojoba Oil