Biodiesel plant design for rural application

The biodiesel production process in reality is much more than just a chemical reaction. The practical aspects of how to convert a locally available bio-oil resource into a modern biodiesel fuel in a rural-scale biodiesel plant is of utmost importance for enhancing its techno-socio-economic viability. It has been proven, under Indian conditions that the industrial-scale biodiesel plant application had failed due to variety of feedstock problems and its management. This paper gives details of work carried out in developing assembly of a prototype semi-continuous batch biodiesel production plant that is not only portable but also suitable to support rural population that wish to become self manufacturer of biodiesel. The batch biodiesel plant has a daily production capacity of approximately 100 liters when working on two shifts of 10 hour each. It can be set up for virgin vegetable oil (edible or non-edible), waste cooking oil as well as high free fatty acid (FFA) oil. It can support esterification reaction as well as transesterification process that uses a non-pressurized reaction vessel and elevated reaction temperatures. Another key advantage of the proposed plant design is that it has methanol recovery unit, without adding much extra cost. With the initial total capital investment of about ` 2 lacs the proposed 100LPD biodiesel plant (annual production capacity of 30 tons of biodiesel) can earn a profit to the tune of ` 70 thousand giving about 35% Return on Investment (ROI) and break even in merely less than 3 years.