A Study on the Production Processes and Costs of Bio-diesel
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Huang, Sheng-Syuan
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Abstract
Part Ι:Biodiesel production process
Biodiesel is generally made by the pressing and the transesterification of oil-bearing crops such as soybeans, sunflower seeds, or rapeseeds. The main feature of biodiesel is that it is environmently friendly and reuses the land. By using fallow farmlands for growing oil-bearing crops, farmers can have the opportunity to work, which reduces government’s loading on subsidizing for fallowing. Furthermore, the absorption of carbon dioxide in the air by the plants as they grow also helps the nations abide by Kyoto Protocol in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases to reach overall objectives. The addition of biodiesel also effectively lowers the exhaust emissions of COX, NOX, and TOC by diesel engines as compared to use petroleum diesel.
This study utilized sunflower seeds and soybeans provided by the Agricultural Research Institute of I-Lan County as raw materials to produce biodiesel. The oil yields from the pressing of raw materials were 27.3% for sunflower seeds whereas only 1.6% for soybeans. The raw oil was then mixed with methyl alcohol and NaOH to undergo transesterification, followed by the distillation that gave rise to refined biodiesel. After comparing the physical properties of refined biodiesel, petroleum diesel, and the store-bought biodiesel, as well as performing simulated distillation analyses, it was found that the quality and performance of refined biodiesel were between the store-bought biodiesel and petroleum diesel. It had higher heating value and better burning quality after distillation. When the refined biodiesel was put into common 125 cc motorcycles (B30) for road tests, no noticeable differences were observed during driving. If the production yield and quality of refined biodiesel are furthen enhanced continuously, it will be a suitable fuel source for both diesel and gasoline cars, which will greatly promote the use of biodiesel.
Part II: Economic assessments of production processes of biodiesel
Baseing on the data from Taiwan Sugar Corporation’s edible soybean oil and experiment results of sunflower seeds by I-Lan Agricultural Research Institute, and adapting the simulated production procedures by Zhang et al. (2003 b), economic assessments of manufacturing of biodiesel at three different annual production levels (8,000, 30,000, and 100,000 metrics tons (MTs)) were performed. The results revealed that at these three annual production levels, the after-tax rates of return were -1.05, 0.95, and 0.91% , respectively for soybean oil, and were-1.42, -1.47, and 1.52%, respectively for sun sunflower seed oil (The raw material prices were based on the “2003 Central and South America average import duty-inclusive quotes” by the Directorate General of Customs of the Republic of China with crude soybean oil of 0.619USD kg-1, Crude sunflower seed oil: 0.689 USD kg-1(2003). As the profit derived from the Biodiesel byproduct – glycerol of is relatively high, the (net annual profit afer tax, NNP) of biodiesel production augments as the production level increases. When produced in large quantity, the higher biodiesel yield by sunflower seeds offset the higher cost of the crude sunflower seed oils that resulted in similar production costs with using soybean oil as the raw material. The breakeven pricess point(BBPs) for generating crude biodiesel from soybean oil at the above-mentioned three production levels were $766, $676, and $647 USD tonne -1 respectively, or equivalent to 22.41, 17.78, and 18.91 NTD liter-1 respectively. The BBPs of curde biodiesel for sunflower seed oil were 25.20, 22.56, and 21.70 NTD liter-1 , respectively. Therefore, the higher the production level, the lower the BBP, and the higher the market competitiveness.
Subjects
無
Type
thesis