Design of Reactive Distillation with Thermal Coupling for the Synthesis of Biodiesel using Genetic Algorithms

Abstract The esterification of lauric acid and methanol is explored using a thermally coupled distillation sequence with a side rectifier and the Petlyuk distillation column. The study was conducted using as a design tool a multi objective genetic algorithm with restrictions. The product of the esterification can be used as biodiesel. It was found that the thermally coupled distillation sequence involving a side rectifier can produce biodiesel with a high purity (around 0.999) and also pure water, and the excess of methanol is recovered in a side rectifier. The results indicate that the energy consumption of the complex distillation sequence with a side rectifier can be reduced significantly by varying operational conditions. These reductions in energy consumption can be interpreted as reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.