Energy saving in technology of production of ethyl biodiesel fuel from rape seeds
Problem statement. Replacing hydrocarbon fuels from oil with fuels derived from vegetable oil-containing raw materials is an important economic task. Vegetable oil-containing raw materials, which include rapeseed is renewable. The main difficulties in the technology of biodiesel rapeseed fuel should include the use of dangerous to human health methyl alcohol. Therefore, technologies are being developed to replace methyl alcohol with safe ethyl alcohol. The aim of the study is to determine the efficiency of heat supply in the form of superheated steam from the boiler burning oilcake after pressing rapeseed oil in the press. Task: complex use of rapeseed oilcake as fuel. Results. The alcohol is designed to perform the transesterification reaction, which consists in obtaining ethyl fatty acids from rapeseed oil with the release of glycerol. The boiling point of methyl and ethyl alcohol respectively equal to 64,7 <sup>о</sup>С and 78,4 <sup>о</sup>С. Ethanol, compared to methanol, less active in the reaction of transesterification. Therefore, the heating temperature of the reactor to produce ethyl fatty acids in the interesterification reaction in accordance with the boiling point of ethyl alcohol may be higher compared to methyl alcohol, on average, 10 <sup>о</sup>С. Typically, rapeseed biodiesel technologies use heat from an external heat source. Therefore, the technology proposed in this paper with heat supply to the transesterification reactor from the built-in boiler burning rapeseed oilcake is effective and allows to obtain heat savings. Conclusions. The significance of the results for the construction industry is that the rapeseed oilcake obtained at the pressing stage can be used to produce superheated water vapor in the built-in boiler in order to supply it to external consumers. The thermal balance during compaction and fusion reactions 1000 kg of ethyl biodiesel showed that sufficient heat for fusion can be generated in the boiler by burning oilcake obtained from pressing 3063 kg of rape seeds.