Solar Energy for a Solvent Recovery Stage in a Biodiesel Production Process

• Main Authors: José A. León, Gisela Montero, Marcos Coronado, José R. Ayala, Conrado García, Aníbal Luna, Ana M. Vázquez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2016-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Photoenergy
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1048095

Recent research and development of clean energy have become essential due to the global climate change problem, which is caused largely by fossil fuels burning. Therefore, biodiesel, a renewable and ecofriendly biofuel with less environmental impact than diesel, continues expanding worldwide. The process for biodiesel production involves a significant energy demand, specifically in the methanol recovery stage through a flash separator and a distillation column. Traditionally, the energy required for this process is supplied by fossil fuels. It represents an opportunity for the application of renewable energy. Hence, the current study presents a system of thermal energy storage modeled in TRNSYS® and supported by simulations performed in ASPEN PLUS®. The aim of this research was to supply solar energy for a methanol recovery stage in a biodiesel production process. The results highlighted that it is feasible to meet 91% of the energy demand with an array of 9 parabolic trough collectors. The array obtained from the simulation was 3 in series and 3 in parallel, with a total area of 118.8 m2. It represents an energy saving of 70 MWh per year.