Simulation and economic evaluation of fuel additives production from glycerol

Biodiesel production continuously increases. This also increases the production of glycerol, the main byproduct of transesterification, whose surplus is not fully absorbed by the market. An interesting destination for glycerol is the production of additives for the biofuel itself, as a green and economical alternative to conventional additives. The objective of this work is to simulate the production processes of three oxygenated fuel additives from the glycerol that is generated in the biodiesel production process: solketal, glycerol tert-butyl ethers (GTBE) and glycerol ethyl ethers (GEE). The processes were simulated in Aspen HYSYS (R) v8.8 and the capital and production costs were estimated. Among the evaluated alternatives, solketal production showed to be the most promising, since it is simpler than those of the other products and it works with acetone, which is cheaper than tert-butanol -required for GTBE production -and is needed in lower flowrates than ethanol -required for GEE production. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Biodiesel production leads to an increase in glycerol production, which exceeds market demand. Using glycerol for producing additives for biofuel is a green and cost-effective alternative, with solketal production being identified as the most promising option among the evaluated alternatives.