Estudo da automação de uma planta piloto para a produção de biodiesel.

Abstract

This paper presents the development of an automation system for a manufacture plant of biofuels with a processing capacity up to 100 liters of oil per batch, using methylic route. For this, different possibilities of development of an efficient, safe and low cost solution were analyzed, defining an electric project for the plant automation. The plant was automated, allowing the control of all electric actuators manually or automatically, safely and in real time, directly on the operation interface of the command board. Three test batches were performed using 100 liters of oil, 20 liters of methanol and 1,6 liters of sodium methylate. The conversion efficiency of oil into biodiesel was monitored by HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) and ATR-FTIR (Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared). The results confirmed the conclusion of the transesterification reaction of the oil, five minutes after its beginning. With these results, it was possible to define the ideal time and temperature conditions of the transesterification, evaporation, decantation, washing and drying biodiesel processes, comparatively analyzing the construction, automation and operation costs. Considering that the plant automation cost represented less than 12% of the total investment, not reducing the quality, productivity and safe parameters of the plant, the system was considered appropriate for the proposed determinations, allowing its installation on rural proprieties or cooperatives for biodiesel production.