การประเมินวัฏจักรชีวิตของการผลิตเชื้อเพลิงชีวภาพจากน้ำมันปาล์มในเมทานอล/เอทานอลภาวะเหนือวิกฤต / ศันสนีย์ ธีรวิทัต = Life cycle assessment of biofuel production from palm oil in supercritical methanol/ethanol / Sunsanee Teeravitud
This research focused on life cycle assessment (LCA) of biofuel production from palm oil in supercritical methanol (SCM)/supercritical ethanol (SCE). The experiments were performed at 400°C, 10-15 MPa, 3:1-24:1 alcohol to oil molar ratio and 10 minutes of the reaction times in batch reactor. Under selected conditions, near complete oil conversion was achieved with the transesterification of trigleceride, esterification of free fatty acid and thermal decomposition of unsaturated methyl esters and glycerol. The optimal alcohol to oil molar ratio of 12:1 and 18:1 for the SCM and SCE process, respectively. The triglycerides conversion was over 98% and fuel yield was enhanced. Furthermore, the biofuel samples obtained from the optimal alcohol to oil molar ratio in 1.2 L batch reactor were largely accord with the biodiesel standard specifications, except for the higher acid value, ester and free glycerol contents. Then, This process is simulated using the process simulator Hysys 3.2 and the potential environmental impacts (PEI’s) are evaluated using the LCA methodology by Simapro. Compared with the conventional supercritical alcohol process at 300°C 20 MPa and 42:1 alcohol to oil molar ratio, the low excess of alcohol process at 400°C gave a 2-fold lower environmental load in alcohol recovery unit and improved environmental performance of biofuel production. However, SCE process had higher environmental load than SCM process.