Project number
15084
Organization
Grecycle
Academic year
2015-2016
The University of Arizona biodiesel pilot plant converts waste cooking oil from student union restaurants into biodiesel to fuel campus vehicles. With community partner Grecycle, students have built a 100-gallon single-reactor plant and quality-testing laboratory to convert the waste oil into biodiesel that meets quality standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials.
The goal of this project was to optimize separation of the biodiesel byproduct stream to recover methanol for recycling and separate water and glycerin, thus creating products of higher purity and value. The team used Aspen and ChemCAD software to simulate a pilot-scale divided-wall column separation method, and is developing a process template for future pilot- and large-scale biodiesel operations.
The goal of this project was to optimize separation of the biodiesel byproduct stream to recover methanol for recycling and separate water and glycerin, thus creating products of higher purity and value. The team used Aspen and ChemCAD software to simulate a pilot-scale divided-wall column separation method, and is developing a process template for future pilot- and large-scale biodiesel operations.