DESIGN OF A MOBILE BIO DIESEL PRODUCTION PLANT

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><b>1.0 Introduction</b></p><p><b></b></p><b></b><p>The purpose of this project is to design an economically feasible mobile biodiesel plant</p><p>capable of processing different grades of waste vegetable oil (WVO) to produce 3000 L</p><p>of biodiesel per week. The mobile biodiesel production unit will travel to locations such</p><p>as cruise ship ports and small communities, where the clients are participating in the</p><p>Biodiesel<i>~In Motion </i>program. The clients are provided with two tanks, one for WVO</p><p>collection and storage and the other for the biodiesel product. It is desired that the mobile</p><p>plant operate to meet the production requirements of 3000 L of biodiesel per week at the</p><p>end of a 40-hour work week, such that the plant requires two full-time operators. The</p><p>biodiesel produced can then be sold back to the client to fuel their diesel-engined</p><p>machinery. In addition, the only client requirements are that they must provide electrical</p><p>energy, water, and steam for the mobile plant process.</p><p>This final report details the plans and decisions that were made leading up to the</p><p>completion of the design of the mobile plant. Section 2.0 will present the main reaction</p><p>that was chosen to convert WVO to biodiesel, including the rationale and consequences</p><p>for this choice. The process which takes WVO through pre-treatment, reaction, and</p><p>finally, purification is described in Section 3.0 and illustrated in Process Flow Diagrams</p><p>and Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams attached in Appendix B. The equipment that</p><p>this process requires is sized and shown in Section 4.0. Section 5.0 discusses the</p><p>environmental impacts of this mobile plant. Finally, based on equipment cost estimates,</p><p>the feasibility of this mobile plant is evaluated in an economic analysis in Section 6.0.</p><p>Finally, recommendations have been proposed for the continuation of this project.</p> <br><p></p>