A techno-economic analysis of biodiesel production by transesterification of microalgae lipids

The present work reports on the preliminary assessment of a cost-effective flow-sheet for the production of biodiesel from microalgae intensive cultivation. The study was based on approximated cost-estimation methods integrated with the simulation software Aspen Plus®. Several scenarios were investigated regarding the lipid extraction, transesterification and solvents recovery steps. The design variables were selected so as to correspond to the main degrees of freedom of the process as number of equilibrium stages, solvent recycle flow rate, transesterification time, methanol to triacylglycerols ratio, plate number and reflux ratio of the distillation unit for methanol recovery. A preliminary determination of plausible values of the cost for unit of mass of biodiesel was attempted as a function of operating conditions.