Abstract
Non-catalytic biodiesel production using supercritical alcohol may replace time and energy-consuming catalytic biodiesel production. Production of biodiesel with supercritical methanol requires extreme process conditions such as high temperature and pressure. To enable this process to take place a batch-type reactor has been designed and constructed. Materials for the construction of high-pressure vessels should satisfy strength requirements, temperature characteristics, and corrosion resistance. Besides, these factors also availability, cost, and ease of fabrication are other factors that must be considered during material selection. Among those factors, the mechanical strength of the chosen material for pressure vessels is the most important design factor for safety operation. Small pressure vessels should be designed in such a way that the operating pressure is still too low to cause any crack to propagate in the vessel (‘‘yield before break’’). For this study, a batch type of reactor was designed with a capacity of 600 mL, and operating temperature and pressure were taken as 240˚C (513 K) and 83 bars (8.3 MPa), respectively, which were just above the critical temperature and pressure of methanol. The most common and widely used construction materials for pressure vessels are stainless steels due to their high mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, ease of availability, and low costs such as Grade 304 and Grade 316 as compared to nickel-rich alloys (such as Inconel, Incoloy, Hastelloy). As a result, 316 stainless steel was found to be the best choice of material for the reactor planned to be designed for supercritical biodiesel production.
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Engineering |
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | December 31, 2022 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2022 |
