Exergy Analysis Of Jatropha And Microalgal Biodiesel Production Plants
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Date
2011-10
Authors
Kotey, Cynthia
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Estimates of crude oil reserves show that its exhaustion will occur in 2047 at a rate of 83 million barrels per day compared to an extraction rate of approximately 98 million barrels/day in 2010. As a result of this, present research and developments are geared towards sustainable production of liquid biofuels especially biodiesel to replace fossil based liquid fuel in the near future. In this study, thermodynamic performance parameters of jatropha methyl ester (JME) and microalgae methyl ester (MME) production plants are determined and compared. The exergy analyses results obtained after process simulation with Aspen Plus software show that for 1 ton biodiesel production plant which utilizes jatropha and microalgae as feedstock, 64% and 44% of the useful energy (available to do work) embedded in the input resources are destroyed respectively in order to obtain the final products (biodiesel and glycerin). 58% and 30% of the destroyed useful energy for MME and JME production plants respectively are as a result of emissions or wastes into the environment. The total entropy generations occurring in the unit operations of MME and JME production plants are 494 MJ/K and 419 MJ/K respectively. Renewability indicators were 0.44 and 0.34 for MME and JME production plants respectively. The oil extraction units for both plants recorded the highest exergy losses of 132,648 MJ and 115,161 MJ for MME and JME production plants respectively. For every ton of microalgal and jatropha biodiesel produced, 38% and 39% of the input exergy into the oil extraction unit is destroyed respectively. On the other hand, the transesterification units recorded the lowest exergy loss of 5% and 2% of the exergies of input resources for MME and JME production plants respectively.
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Keywords
Exergy analysis of jatropha and microalgal , biodiesel production plants