Simulation Study of Distillation, Stripping, and Flash Technology for an Energy Efficient Methanol Recovery Unit in Biodiesel Production Processes

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dc.contributor.advisorVeawab, Amornvadee
dc.contributor.advisorAroonwilas, Adisorn
dc.contributor.authorPhilip, Firuz Alam
dc.contributor.committeememberNg, Tsun Wai Kelvin
dc.contributor.committeememberIdem, Raphael
dc.contributor.externalexaminerZeng, Fanhua
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-20T19:11:31Z
dc.date.available2014-10-20T19:11:31Z
dc.date.issued2013-11
dc.descriptionA Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science in Environmental Systems Engineering, University of Regina. xiv, 91 p.en_US
dc.description.abstractBiodiesel is an important alternative renewable energy source currently produced by transesterification reaction of oil or fat with methanol. To improve the conversion, excess methanol is required, which must be recovered from the product stream and recycled back into the process for further biodiesel production. The intensive energy requirements for methanol recovery are an important issue that directly impacts the production costs of biodiesel. To reduce the cost of biodiesel production, an energy efficient methanol recovery unit (MRU) is crucial. This work focuses on energy requirement reduction by distillation, flash-based recovery, and newly-introduced stripping-based methanol recovery units. Four different continuous methanol recovery units were simulated using Aspen Plus. Energy requirements with respect to process parameters including percentage of methanol recovery, operating pressure, and methanol-to-oil ratio for all methanol recovery units were analyzed. Units were compared in terms of energy requirement and purity of recovered methanol product. The simulation results show that energy requirement for methanol recovery units increases with increase in % methanol recovery and reflux ratio (for distillation), but decreases with decrease in operating pressure and increase in methanol-to-oil ratio. The recovered methanol is pure for distillation and stripping-based MRUs. However, for flash-based MRUs, the purity of recovered methanol degrades at the high heat duty supplied. Consequently, the single- and double-flash-based MRUs have narrow ranges of operation. Moreover, double-flash-based MRUs have no significant advantages over single-flash-based MRUs in terms of heat duty. Comparison of heat duty among distillation, stripping, and single-flash reveals that the single-flash-based MRU is the most energy efficient followed by stripping and distillation-based MRUs.en_US
dc.description.authorstatusStudenten
dc.description.peerreviewyesen
dc.identifier.tcnumberTC-SRU-5469
dc.identifier.thesisurlhttp://ourspace.uregina.ca/bitstream/handle/10294/5469/Philip_FiruzAlam_200303656_MASC_EVSE_Spring2014.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10294/5469
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherFaculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Reginaen_US
dc.titleSimulation Study of Distillation, Stripping, and Flash Technology for an Energy Efficient Methanol Recovery Unit in Biodiesel Production Processesen_US
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.departmentFaculty of Engineering and Applied Scienceen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineEngineering - Environmental Systemsen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Reginaen
thesis.degree.levelMaster'sen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Applied Science (MASc)en_US
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