Techno-economic feasibility of producing biodiesel from acidic oil using sulfuric acid and calcium oxide as catalysts

Super Pro design and Aspen Plus softwares were used to perform the conceptual design and simulation of the different alternatives. The techno-economic competitiveness of three different scenarios were evaluated. The technical parameters were amount and quality of biodiesel and glycerol as well as the amount of biodiesel produced per feedstock used. The economic parameters considered were Total Investment Cost, Operating Cost, Unit Cost of Production, NPV, ROI and Payback time. The CaO catalyzed process could show better economic performances.