Diseño del proceso para obtención de biodiesel a partir del sebo de descarne producido en la curtiduría Tungurahua S.A.

Abstract

The company "Curtiduría Tungurahua S.A." had monthly economic losses when sending the waste from the fleshing area with sulfurous compounds to the Municipal Public Company of Integral Management of Solid Waste Ambato (GIDSA); therefore, the objective of designing the process for obtaining biodiesel from the tallow of fleshing produced in Curtiduría Tungurahua S. A. (CTU), located in the Industrial Park of the city of Ambato, was to give an added value to the matter considered as waste, through the systemic experimental method and the application of in-situ techniques. The process of obtaining biodiesel was dimensioned at an industrial level, according to the results obtained by the experimentation; we worked with 1100 g of tallow fat, 209 g of 99% Anhydrous Methanol and 22 g of Potassium Hydroxide (KOH); in this way we obtained 882.51 ml of Biodiesel, by the transesterification reaction we obtained as a by-product 414. 88 ml of crude glycerin, thus the design of the process was established with two continuous agitation reactors, a vertical decanter, a washing tank with an internal water spray pipe, a hot air fan, a sand and gravel filter, a binary distillation tower (water - methanol) and a binary distillation tower (biodiesel). With the present design it was concluded that 452.72 liters of biofuel were produced from 600 kg of oil with a 65.72% yield; the economic feasibility of an internal rate of return (IRR) was 77%, the implementation of the design represented an economic feasibility with a net present value (NPV) of $ 15,764.19.