Simulation and preliminary economic assessment of a biodiesel plant and comparison with reactive distillation

•Detailed technological data from an existent industrial plant is provided.•Simulation of an batch plant for biodiesel was validated with experimental data.•Simulation of a reactive distillation process was performed.•Comparative economic assessment was performed between the process.

In recent years biodiesel has become an alternative to the growing demand for biofuels. The main challenge is to produce high quality biodiesel which is economically competitive with fossil-based diesel fuels. Most biodiesel studies are based on bench scale alkali-catalyzed technology and no detailed technological information is available to compare industrial data with process simulation. This work presents simulation of a batch industrial plant for biodiesel production and makes a comparative study of preliminary economic feasibility with a reactive continuous distillation process. Simulated results were compared with those obtained in an industrial plant. Economic assessment of the process was carried out using total annualized unit cost. Simulated results presented agreement with experimental industrial data. Economic assessment showed that the reactive distillation process was more cost-effective than the batch process for the production of biodiesel.