Closed loop process development of vegetable oil refinery integration with SBE processing and its application as a source of Bioenergy

Abstract

Abstract A new paradigm in resource recovery is the closed cycle process, in which the output of one industry feeds into the inflow of another. An application of the closed cycle process concept is demonstrated in a case study by the combination of a cooking oil refinery (COR) and spent bleaching earth (SBE) processing. The generated bioenergy product is utilized again in COR as a source of energy. The aim of this research is to develop a process simulation that can demonstrate how the two industries are integrated in their joint resource utilisation. Physical method with extraction, thermal with pyrolysis and chemical with trans-esterification were selected for SBE processing. Process simulation was used to obtain mass and energy balance data of the three methods. Determination of the selected method was done by mass and energy balance analysis. Simulation results showed surplus energy data of 1,694 kCal/kg SBE, 1,507.25 kCal/kg SBE and 16.698 kCal/kg SBE respectively for those three methods. Priority methods to be integrated with the cooking oil plant are physical, thermal and chemical methods.