Evaluation on safety and energy requirement of biodiesel production: conventional system and microreactors

Abstract Commercial biodiesel production through transesterification of refined bleached & deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) with methanol is commonly performed in macroscale reactors. This work focused on the comparison of biodiesel production system in terms of production efficiency and safety evaluation for both conventional and microreactor systems based on the industrial production capacity of 20,589.29 L/h. Our demonstration of the laboratory biodiesel production provided high quality of biodiesel comparable to the commercial biodiesel. Design of microreactor system for scaling-out to industrial capacity was performed. The simple layout of microreactor system provided great flexibility for operation and maintenance. Less energy consumption and a small number of operators relative to the conventional biodiesel production plant are required. Safety evaluation based on HAZOP and FMEA suggested that the microreactor system was relatively safer than that of the conventional one. The risk can be further reduced by regularly maintaining and calibrating equipment according to preventive maintenance schedule.