Enhanced methanol recovery and glycerol separation in biodiesel production - DWC makes it happen

► Single step methanol recovery and glycerol separation in biodiesel production. ► Efficient process intensification method based on a dividing-wall column (DWC). ► Rigorous simulations carried out in AspenTech Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics. ► Optimized designs using the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method. ► Energy savings of 27% and 12% lower investment costs by DWC alternative.