Simulation analysis of methanol flash distillation circulation process in biodiesel production with supercritical method |
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Authors: | Zhengjiao Tang Cunwen Wang Weiguo Wang Jia Guo Yuanxin Wu Jinfang Chen and Yigang Ding |
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Affiliation: | (1) University of Malaya, Kuala Lumbur, 50603, Malaysia;(2) Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; |
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Abstract: | High methanol-to-oil ratio is required to obtain a high conversion of oil for the production of biodiesel with supercritical
methanol. Recovering the methanol of a stream issuing from a transesterification supercritical reactor by flash distillation
instead of evaporation was analyzed. The one-stage and two-stage flash distillation processes were presented and compared.
The difference of the recovery percentage of methanol of the above two flash processes is less than 0.5% and the methanol
concentration in the vapor for the one-stage process decreases rapidly when feed temperature increases. The process in which
the product of transesterification of soybean oil with supercritical methanol is cooled to an appropriate temperature (about
240°C) first and then flashed was put forward. The effect of cooling temperature, feed pressure and flash pressure on methanol
concentration and recovery percentage was investigated. According to this study, when the feed pressure range is 15–30 MPa,
the flash pressure equals 0.4 MPa, and cooling temperature range is 240°C–250°C, the recovery percentage of methanol is not
less than 85%, and the concentration of the vapor in mass fraction of methanol is approximately 99%. Thus, the vapor leaving
the flash tank can be directly circulated to the transesterification reactor. |
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