Promising future for biodiesel: Superstructure optimization from feed to fuel

A superstructure model for maximizing the profit of biodiesel production is presented in this work. The superstructure encompasses a wide range of feedstocks (e.g., waste cooking oil, tallow, rapeseed oil and algae), conventional reaction and separation equipment (e.g., continuous stirred tank reactor, decanter and vacuum distillation) and intensified operation units such as membrane reactor and reactive distillation column. The superstructure model is implemented in Advanced Interactive Multidimensional Modeling (AIMMS). The results present an optimal design of a biodiesel production process from waste cooking oil and tallow with a heterogeneous acid catalyst, a reactive distillation column and additional purification steps for producing pure glycerol which is 40% higher in price than technical glycerol. The total annual profit of the biodiesel production from waste cooking oil is 828,697 USD and from tallow is 976,450 USD. The results show that the combination of feedstock selection and implementation of advanced processing technologies to improve biodiesel production can be achieved with the superstructure optimization method.