2.
0 MARKET ANALYSIS AND MARKET STRATEGIES
2.1 INTRODUCTION TO FEASIBILITY STUDY OF MARKET, PROCESS AND
TECHNOLOGY
Biodiesel, which is among the most promising renewable biofuels, has seen a rapid
increase in the production ability due to high demand for diesel replacement, together with
oversupply of its by-product, crude glycerol. The large worldwide demand for palm oil is
propelled by its wide variety of applications, such as cooking oil, food additives, industrial
lubricants, beauty products and, most recently, biodiesel production.
Mostly as feed stock for biodiesel, palm oil has significant advantages over other fats.
Firstly, palm oil is the most competitive oil crop because, without subsidies, palm oil is cheaper
than every vegetable oil used in the manufacture of biodiesel. Second, as a perennial crop with
an economic cycle of around 25 years, the oil palm is less susceptible to changes in weather
conditions and thus provides a fairly stable supply of feed to the biodiesel industry compared to
the annual harvest.
Biofuel provides economic benefits to various markets and stakeholders. The Malaysian
palm oil industry is generating fresh consumer demand that will lead to a gradual increase in
commodity prices. Malaysia is a major producer of palm oil and therefore Malaysia has in the
past concentrated on palm oil as a raw material used for the production of biodiesel. Due to the
reasons, our company decided to produce biodiesel from crude palm oil (CPO) because of the
availability of the CPO in this country.
2.2 TARGET MARKET ANALYSIS
We target end-user manufacturers, investors, aftermarket suppliers, the research institute
or educational institute and the transport sector in Malaysia. They are blended with existing fuels
such as petrol and diesel. In the future, it will be especially necessary to help decarbonize the
aviation, maritime and heavy-duty road transport industries.
2.3 LOCATION ANALYSIS
Our company has chosen to manufacture biodiesel due to the fact that there are not many
companies in Malaysia manufacturing biodiesel. We have chosen Teja, Kampar District Perak as
our place for the development of biodiesel, because this region is ideal and has a larger size of
land to grow our plant in the future. The commercial and industrial sectors are the main driving
forces of the Kampar economy. Extra recently, its economy was further driven by the
construction of the new Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) campus. The Teja Industrial
Site is connected to a large transport network. This will act as a bonus, in fact, to workers for
commuting. The choices indicate that the area is accessible from several other roads, which is a
safe way to escape any other traffic jams.
3.0 PROCESS ANALYSIS
3.1 FEEDSTOCK SELECTION
There are several types of feedstock that can be used to produce biodiesel mainly edible
oils, non-edible oils and animal fats. These oils can be extracted from several sources such as:
i. Rubber seed oil
ii. Jatropha oil
iii. Coconut oil
iv. Crude palm oil (CPO)
v. Neem oil
vi. Lard
vii. Microalgae
viii. Wasted vegetable oil
The key reasons of selecting feedstock material are listed below. However, all of the
listed reasons might not be applicable for every feedstock material.
i. Availability of feedstock in local market
ii. Freely available or having low market price
iii. Feedstock material is not suitable for human consumption
iv. Possibility of cultivation in mass scale for biodiesel production
Different feedstock material contains different composition of oil with different
percentage of yield and conversion. In this project, we have chosen CPO as our feedstock due to
the reasons above and its higher FFA content when compared with other types of oils.
3.2 PRE-TREATMENT OF FEEDSTOCK
The CPO comes in packed by the supplier. Since it contains high amounts of impurities,
the pilot plant is designed to coverts CPO to bleached palm oil (BPO). The process begins with
degumming to remove natural gums, followed by bleaching to remove coloring matters as well
as to adsorbs any metal ions content. Other impurities such as dirt and solid particles are
removed using a bleaching earth filter. This is to prepare the CPO quality to be fit for the next
process.
3.3 PROCESS SELECTION
3.3.1 COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES TO PRODUCE BIODIESEL
To ensure that biodiesel remains competitive over petroleum diesel, using CPO may be
the best option. However, conventional methods of using alkali catalyst to convert oils into
biodiesel are not compatible with CPO, given its inherent chemical composition. CPO is a low
cost feedstock but it has high content of FFA, high water content, insoluble impurities,etc. [3]
3.3.2 BASE CATALYZED TRANSESTERIFICATION
For a basic catalyst, either sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or potassium hydroxide (KOH)
should be used with methanol as well as CPO. The catalyst is dissolved in the biodiesel reactor
by vigorous stirring at 60-80°C n ambient pressure.[4]. Base catalyzed transesterification process
is the most preferred technology since it has its advantages. However, there are some cons in this
process too.
Advantages:
most economical process since it has a conversion rate up to 98%
requires low temperatures and pressure
the use of usual equipment
Disadvantages:
Needs raw oil of high purity, particularly with low concentration and low FFA content. If
not, saponification reaction sets in and competes with transesterification.
The yield is proportional to the amount of catalyst but for economic purposes, the minimal
amount of catalyst has to be used together with an optimal ratio oil/alcohol. [3].
3.3.3 ACID CATALYSED PROCESS
This process can produce biodiesel through both esterification and transesterification. It is
the second conventional way of making biodiesel. The idea is to use triglycerides with alcohol
and sulfuric acid (H2SO4). This type of catalyst gives very high yield in esters but the reaction is
very slow, requiring almost one day to finish. It is also more corrosive than base-catalyzed
transesterification, requiring equipment of high cost. However, this process is efficient to reduce
the FFA content hence reducing saponification. [3], [5]
3.3.4 ENZYMATIC TRANSESTERIFICATION
Enzymatic transesterification has gained interest recently, particularly because it
produces less wastes, consumes less energy, and has got high efficiency and high selectivity.
However, its wide spread application is hindered by the fact that involved enzymes are costly to
produce, and reactions require delicacy in parameters control. Lipase is one of the examples of
enzymes that is highly used in this technology.
Advantages:
possibility of regeneration and reuse of the immobilized residue
use of enzymes in reactors allows use of high concentration of them
a bigger thermal stability of the enzyme due to the native state
immobilization of lipase could protect it from the solvent
separation of product will be easier
Disadvantages:
lose some initial activity due to volume of the oil molecule
number of support enzyme is not uniform
biocatalyst is more expensive than the natural enzyme. [3], [5]
3.3.5 SUPERCRITICAL METHANOL
Supercritical methanol method is another technique of making biodiesel but this time
without using any catalyst. It offers high efficiency up to 100% and it is environmentally
friendly. This method eliminates the steps of neutralization, washing and drying. The feedstocks
water and FFA contents have no effect on the reaction. Both triglycerides and FFA are converted
simultaneously into biodiesel. However, the reaction tank should be oversized due to a high
quantity of alcohol used with respect to oil (42:1), high pressure over 80atm and high
temperature up to 350-400°C. These conditions are considered as harsh operations and high cost.
[3]
3.4 TECHNOLOGY SELECTION
Block Diagram for Production of Biodiesel
Alkali catalyzed transesterification has a higher reaction rate over acid catalyzed
transesterification, it is widely being used to process oils with lower FFA content. However, it is
essential to use acid catalyzed transesterification when the FFA content is high, though the
reaction rate is low. Many manufacturers have used both acid and alkaline catalysts for the
synthesis of biodiesel from high FFA containing oils. An acid-catalyzed transesterification is
used initially to convert FFA to ester and and to decrease the FFA level to less than 1%. In the
second stage, the transesterification of oil is carried out using an alkaline catalyst. This method is
called “Acid esterification and alkali-catalyzed two-step transesterification method”.
This process will use methanol as their solvent. The difference is the amount of methanol
being use. For acid esterification, the amount of methanol used is fixed which is 11%. The
mixing time will take almost 4 hours to complete. After the reaction is complete, the amount of
methanol will be computed to determine the amount usage for transesterification. For
transesterification, methanol will be used in excess in order to shift the reaction equilibrium to
the right. This will be hold in two steps where each step uses only half of the catalyst and
glycerin will be drained at the end of the step.
Although this method will require a longer time to finish and might be using more cost
for energy consumption, the cost for methanol can be cut. This is because, the excess methanol
will be recovered by static and dynamic evaporation. A deactivation will be carried out before
dynamic evaporation to prevent reversion of methyl esters and glycerol back to mono and
diglycerides in presence of residual methylate during dynamic evaporation. After dynamic is
done, methanol vapors will be sucked in and condensed. Al most all the excess methanol is
recovers and it is reused after purification. Since it is targeted to design a plot plant especially for
CPO which initially contains high amount of FFA, “Acid esterification and alkali-catalyzed two-
step transesterification method” was selected due to its better performances with high FFA
containing oils/fats. [1,3]
3.5 PROCESS DESCRIPTION
3.5.1 Pretreatment of Crude Palm Oil (Degumming, bleaching, acid catalyzed esterification)
Production of biodiesel starts at pretreatment of crude palm oil. In the pretreatment
module, crude palm oil will undergo degumming process where it is being treated with
phosphoric acid to remove natural gums. Then, it will pass through bleaching section with
activated earth under vacuum to remove the coloring matters as well as to adsorbs any metal ions
content. Impurities such as dirt and solid particles will be removed using a bleaching earth filter.
The product from this pretreatment process is the refined bleached palm oil.
Acid catalyzed esterification is important to reduce the FFA content in CPO to avoid
saponification during transesterification. In this process, reactants proportion are of 11% of
methanol and 0.8% of sulfuric acid by CPO weight are being mized. At the end of the mixing,
sedimentation is required to let the glycerol settle from the rest of the mixture.
3.5.2 Alkali catalyzed Transesterification
In order to shift the reaction to the right, methanol is used in excess and
transesterification is split into two steps, each step using half of the catalyst with a glycerin drain
scheduled at the end of each step. Sodium hydroxide, NaOH is used as the base catalyst. The
methanol-oil molar ratio being used in this process is 6:1. The amount of catalyst that should be
added to the reactor varies from 0.5% to 1% w/w. The reaction temperature to take place is 60°C.
3.5.3 Separation and Purification of Biodiesel
Before getting the pure biodiesel, there will be presence of impurities such as glycerol,
methanol, catalyst, water and glycerides. Biodiesel purification stage is an essential step in
biodiesel production process which has to be carried out after the completion of
transesterification reaction. The product from transesterification mixture is separated in to two
layers, one consisting mainly of glycerol and another one is the methyl esters. Separation process
is based on their density where glycerol is much denser than methyl ester. Glycerol will be
purged out of the separator via bottom stream.
3.5.4 Wet Washing
Water washing followed by drying is usually carried out as an effective step of final
treatment of biodiesel for removal of un-reacted alcohol used in the process. Methyl ester is
washed with 0.5% of hydrochloric acid solution and again with 1:1 volume ratio of distilled
water for three times. The washed methyl esters were the being dried over magnesium sulphate
and filtered under vacuum.
3.5.5 Glycerin Recovery
It has been reported that the amount of glycerol being reported produced in the biodiesel
process by volume is about 10% to 15% of biodiesel produced where in the stream consist of
50% or less amount of glycerin. The rest contains water, salts, methanol, methyl esters,
unreacted glycerides, colour and odour bodies and other minor compounds. A method of
obtaining glycerin with higher degree of purification and the excess alcohol has been removed by
a vacuum distillation route evaporator at 80% as the first step. The two phases be separated in a
decantation funnel. The separated crude glycerin layer be neutralized and passed through an
activated carbon column which allows the adsorption of impurities in the glycerin and removal
of yellowing characteristics of neutralized glycerin with higher degree of purification.
3.5.6 Methanol Recovery
Methanol is the main raw material in the biodiesel production apart from oil and fat.
Methanol is used in excess to shift the equilibrium reaction to the right and to increase the
conversion of FAME. The remaining methanol can be recovered after the completion of the
reaction. It has a vacuum distillation column with 5 theoretical stages as the methanol recovery
unit.
3.6 EQUIPMENTS
3.6.1 REACTOR
The most popular continuous-flow system for the production of biodiesel is the
continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). In reality, the actual reactor can always be the same, but
additional controls are required to set up the reactor in a continuous-flow system. Some
continuous flow plants can be able to work in either accordance with the methods configuration.
3.6.2 DISTILLATION COLUMN
A distillation column is an integral element used in the distillation of liquid mixtures to
separate the solution into its component parts or fractions on the basis of differences in
volatilities. Biodiesel Distillation is a dynamic method of evaporation and fractionation of
methyl ester (biodiesel) under intense negative pressure and high temperature for the
manufacture of distilled biodiesel.
3.6.3 REBOILER
The reboiler forms part of the distillation system, and as well as providing the vapour for
the separation within the column contributes some measure of the separation. Reboiler was
designed to vaporize the lighter component that remain in liquid from bottom. It also provided
major portion of heat that required to make it work.
3.6.4 CONDENSER
A condenser is an apparatus or item of equipment used to condense a substance from its
gaseous to its liquid state. Condensers can be applied at various scales, from micro-scale to
process-scale that accomplishes the cooling of the vapour generated by boiling.
3.6.5 REFLUX DRUM
The condensed liquid is stored in a holding vessel known as the reflux drum. Some of
this liquid is recycled back to the top of the column and this is called the reflux. The condensed
liquid that is removed from the system is known as the distillate or top product. The function of a
reflux drum is to hold the condensed vapour from the top of the column so that liquid (reflux)
can be recycled back to the column.
3.6.6 DRYERS
There are several ways to dry washing biodiesel. Biodiesel purification by washing or
cleaning agent or absorbent technology is one of the solutions that can be offered. Dry washing
methods can reduce water washing consumption up to 100%, shorten the purification process
time of about 2.5 hours, reduce waste around 30%, and reduce operational costs or production.
Dry process (dry washing) is useful for extracting both soap and dirt from crude biodiesel
without the use of water. There are a variety of ways to dry biodiesel scrub. Biodiesel
purification by washing or cleaning agent or by absorbent processing is one of the options that
can be provided. Dry washing approaches can minimize water wash use by up to 100%,
minimize the purification cycle by around 2.5 hours, reduce pollution by about 30% and decrease
operational or manufacturing costs.
3.6.7 TRAY
Tray column is the most widely used type of distillation column. The number of trays, of
stages in the column is dependent on the desired purity and difficulty of separation. The number
of stages also determines the height of the column. The design of trays depends on the density,
the rate of vapour and liquid through the tray. Each tray in a distillation column is designed to
promote contact between the vapour and the liquid on the stage, so there is mass and heat
transfer. As for our design, we decided to use sieve typed tray.
