Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
some of the esters from the glycerol, or can be separated using another unit such as a settling
vessel or centrifuge. Both the glycerol and ester streams must have the alcohol removed in an
evaporator or flash unit. The ester stream is then neutralized and washed to take out residual
methanol and salts before going through a dryer to remove the water. The remainder is sold as
biodiesel. The glycerol stream is also washed and neutralized then sent to another refining
section to improve the quality of glycerol able to be sold. If a triglyceride high in FFA is
used, pretreatment equipment must be added to the process prior to the batch reactor. Figure
16(b) indicated a positive impact upon the overall energy consumed/produced ratio for whole
processing.
Table 14. Typical specifications for a batch reaction process
Figure 17. Continuous stirred tank reactors system [32].
