Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Mechatronics System Design
Biodiesel Production System
Prepared by :
Group #4
Younis Irshid Al.Mshagbeh 0057422
Ali Mohammed Al.Shugairat 0057392
Ahmad Hasan Al.Harasis 0057360
Yousif Hashem Al.Zwiri 0046739
Small Scale Biodiesel Production System
Introduction:
In this project we will design a small scale biodiesel production system.
Plant oils, are far more viscous than fossil fuels which can result in poor combustion and
formation of deposits. The problems can be overcome by adapting the engine to the fuel
or, more commonly, the fuel to the engine; biodiesel.
Biodiesel has the highest energy balance (3.5) of any other fuel, meaning for every unit of
fossil energy needed to produce biodiesel, 3.5 units of energy are gained. Since it is
produced domestically, it can reduce the need for fossil fuel and improve the nation's
energy security.
The advantages:
1. Bio Diesel is the most valuable form of renewable energy that can be used
directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine.
2. Smaller Trade Deficit: Rather than importing other countries’ ancient natural
resources, we could be using our own living resources to power our
development and enhance our economies. Instead of looking to the Mideast
for oil, the world could look to the tropics for biofuels. producing more
biofuels will save foreign exchange and reduce energy expenditures and allow
developing countries to put more of their resources into health, education and
other services for their neediest citizens.
© Copyright held by authors: Group [4] Page 1
Small Scale Biodiesel Production System
3. Economic Growth: Biofuels create new markets for agricultural products and
stimulate rural development because biofuels are generated from crops; they
hold enormous potential for farmers. In the near future—especially for the
two-thirds of the people in the developing world who derive their incomes
from agriculture
4. Cleaner Air: Biofuels burn more cleanly than gasoline and diesel. Using
biofuels means producing fewer emissions of carbon monoxide, particulates,
and toxic chemicals that cause smog, aggravate respiratory and heart disease,
and contribute to thousands of premature deaths each year.
5. Less Global Warming: Biofuels contain carbon that was taken out of the
atmosphere by plants and trees as they grew. The Fossil fuels are adding huge
amounts of stored carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, where it traps the
Earth's heat like a heavy blanket and causes the world to warm. Studies show
that biodiesel reduces CO2 emissions to a considerable extent and in some
cases all most nearly to zero.
The disadvantages:
1. The percentage of feedstock that will be lost is higher then the percentage FFA.
100 gallons of waste vegetable oil will loose more than 10 gallons if it is 10%
FFA.
2. One limitation to the use of biodiesel is the fact that it tends to gel at low
temperatures. Gelling can be reduced by adding a winterizing agent formulated for
diesel fuels.
3. As will be illustrated in the next section, there may also be some limitations
regarding the economics of biodiesel production. While the economic analysis
does not include the potential social benefits provided through reduced emissions
(due to the difficulty in quantifying these values).
The process starts with certain type of vegetable oil, this oil should be mixed with
the methanol and the catalyst which is in this case sodium monoxide (NaOH), and then
the mixture should be heated until 80˚c in the reactor, after that; the heated mixture
should pumped to the decanter in which washing and separation operations take place,
there are three expected products from the decanter; tow byproducts (Methanol and
Glycerol) and the wanted product (Biodiesel).
The above process is called (transesterification), and the block diagram below
explains this process:
The pump will continuously pumping the fluid to the reactor until the level
reaches its maximum desired value (90 cm), then the pumping from the first tank is stop,
then we will turn ON the heater and the mixer (to make uniform distribution of the heat
through the mixture) and wait until the temperature of the mixture reaches the desired
value (80˚c), at that moment the heater and the mixer will turned OFF and a normally
closed (NC) valve will opened to allow draining the heated mixture to the decanter to
wash it and separate the biodiesel from the other byproducts.
Draining operation will continue until the level reaches its minimum desired value
(10 cm), then the valve will closed and the pump will turned ON again, and the system
will stay in this infinite loop.
More information about this pump are located in its datasheet in appendix A.
DC pumps are voltage controlled. That’s mean whenever the voltage across its
motor terminals changes the speed of the motor changes proportionally, so the flow rate is
proportional to the voltage applied across the motor.
We will use PWM (pulse width modulation) switching technique to control the
speed of the pump motor (i.e. the flow rate), The main idea of PWM is to change the duty
cycle of the driving signal of the load, consequently the average voltage applied to the
load will be changed, but we won't change this duty cycle, because we want constant flow
rate all time.
• We used the opto-coupler (CNY17-2) in order to isolate the electrical circuit of the
pump from the PIC microcontroller, because the interference from the load on PIC
microcontroller which may destroy it.
• Switching is achieved by firing the base of (MOSFET) by a control signal with a
specific frequency (PWM output) in order to make the load on the other port of the
transistor network connected to its voltage supply.
• We choose the (MOSFET) because of its high current withstanding capability, and its
ability to operate under high frequencies.
• We used a freewheeling diode (1N1202C) connected in parallel with the pump, in
order to eliminate the inductive noise from the pump.
• The microcontroller (PIC16F877A) sends actuation signal (to RC7) to actuate the
valve coil, but the coil of the normally closed valve needs 24-V DC to be opened,
while the controller can only provide 5-V DC as a maximum output.
• So, we used a high-voltage and high-current Darlington transistor array
(ULN2003A) to solve this problem, which will provide the coil of the valve with
the required current.
• The other problem encountered us that the maximum ideal output current from the
(ULN2003A) is 0.5A, which is not enough to actuate the coil of the valve (needs
0.667A) , In order to get over this problem, a relay (finder-41.52.9.012) with 12-V
DC coil was used to deliver enough current for the valve coil.
• a free wheeling diode (1N1202C) is used to protect the relay coil from the back
electromotive force (EMF) generated due to the sudden change in the voltage
values during switching operations.
We decided to use a DC motor to accomplish the job of mixing the mixture inside
the decanter, because we want to control the speed of this motor using PWM duty cycle
control.
In our process the motor will operate at speed of 60 rpm, which is enough to mix the
liquid inside the reactor, to make uniform distribution of liquid temperature.
As mentioned above; we want to control the speed of the DC motor (mixer) using
PWM technique, but here we will be able to change the speed of the motor using ADC
(Analog to Digital Conversion) function of the PIC16F877A, and that by change the duty
cycle depending on variation of an analog input fro a 10 kohm potentiometer connected to
AN0 (RA0).
The driving circuit of the DC motor is shown below, and it’s approximately identical to
the one for the DC pump:
The main three features which the heater must have are:
1. The ability for providing the fluid in the reactor with the desired temperature.
2. Its material must be able to bear the chemical reaction around it (because it will
stay always inside the reactor).
3. The heater must be with suitable size, to give us the ability to put it inside the tank
(reactor).
So, so we decide to use the heater (HVM124) with operates at 230 Vrms and rated
power of 1kW.
We used the (ULN2003A) and the freewheeling diode (1N1202C) for the
same reasons mentioned in the valve section.
The LM35 series are precision integrated-circuit temperature sensors, whose output voltage is
linearly proportional to the Celsius (Centigrade) temperature by the ratio (10mV/ ). All features
of this sensor are in its data sheet in Appendix A.
This sensor will measure the temperature of the fluid inside the reactor and return an
analog DC voltage signal proportional to this temperature, then this signal will used as input for
the ADC module in the (PIC16F877A) at AN2 (pin RA2) to converted to digital value to compare
So, if the (LM35) operates at 5Vand the ADC module gives us 10 bit resolution; then the
value which we will compare the result of ADC with it is given by:
80 0.01 /
2 164
5
The driving circuit of the temperature sensor is shown below:
Temperature Controlling:
A control algorithm is needed to hold the temperature of the fluid inside the reactor at a
constant value (80 ) in our case. Electronic temperature controllers are most often used
to vary the supply of an electric current through the electric heater to accomplish this.
Assuming that the temperature control system is a first order system with a time constant
of 2 sec, then the transfer function of the system is given by:
. .
We note that from the last figure, that the output response nee to 6 sec to settle, and this
time is too long and causes a problem. So, we decided to use a PID controller to solve this
problem.
The PID controller is the most widely used controller in industry and process
control, yet it isn’t most efficient for all applications, The PID-controller can be
described by the equation:
.
Where , are the controller parameters which needed to be found for
PID controller tuning. This type of controller has a transfer function calculated by
applying Laplace transform:
If we want to control our system we must make tuning the controller parameters
as we want the system response to be. In order to get a fine tuning there are many rules;
Ziegler-Nichols tuning rules are one of them.
Now for our system after we use a PID controller with the parameters
In our process we want the pump to pump the fluid to the reactor until the level of the
liquid reaches 90 cm, at that moment the valve must opened to allow draining from the
reactor to the decanter until the level reaches 0 cm (the tank is empty) then the pump
should start pumping again.
So, we selected the level sensor (LV-MaxSonar-EZ), which provides very short to
long-range detection and ranging, in an incredibly small package, detects objects from 0-
inches to 254-inches (6.45-meters) and provides sonar range information from 6-inches
out to 254-inches with 1-inch resolution.
This sensor Outputs analog voltage with a scaling factor of (Vcc/512) per inch. A supply
of 5V yields 9.8mV/in (3.86 mV / cm). (See the data sheet in Appendix A).
This sensor is measure the distance and returned it in more than one form, but we
will use the analog output and use it as input for the ADC module in the (PIC16F877A)
on AN1 (RA1) to convert it and compare it with the desired voltage values (desired
levels), then depending on the result of comparison the state of the pump, heater, and the
mixer will evaluated.
Since the level sensor (LV-MaxSonar-EZ) operates at 5V and the ADC module
give us a resolution of 10 bits then the value which we will compare the result of ADC with it
is given by:
. /
2 8……...To ensure that the tank is full
. /
2 71……To ensure that the tank is empty
START:
LEVEL = Adc_Read (1) 'READ THE LEVEL
IF LEVEL <= 8 THEN 'IF THE LEVEL IS 90 CM OR ABOVE
Y1: Pwm2_STOP 'TURN OFF THE PUMP
PORTB.3=1 'TURN ON THE HEATER
PMETER=ADC_READ (0)
PWM1_CHANGE_DUTY (PMETER)
Pwm2_START
TEMP: TEMPERATURE = Adc_Read (2) 'READ THE TEMPERATURE
END IF
END.
3. Composition Information
Biodiesel contains no hazardous materials. Biodiesel contains a variety of fatty
acid methyl esters with carbon chain lengths varying between 12 and 22, where 18
carbon chains are the most common. Small quantities (less than 1%) of other
materials may be present and should not exceed fuel quality standards.
6. Eye Contact
May cause irritation. Irrigate eye with water for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Seek
medical attention if symptoms persist. Safety glasses, goggles, or face shield are
recommended to protect eyes from mists or splashing.
9. Aquatic Toxicity
A 96-hr. lethal concentration of biodiesel for bluegills was greater than 1000
Mg/L. Lethal concentrations at these levels are generally deemed "insignificant"
according to NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)
guidelines in its Registry of the Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances.
12. Separate between the electrical components and the fluid to avoid explosion of the
material.(avoid any contact with anything may produce a spark).
Maintenance:
1) Continuous checking of the equipments used in the production line in general by
applying a piecewise testing.
2) Redundancy or diversity by using another pump in parallel with the main pump,
and another solenoid valve parallel with main valve, of the same technology
(Redundancy) or different technology (Diversity).
3) Visual scanning of tanks and pipes looking for any leakage then when finding
one; the problem has to be solved immediately.
4) Checking both of level and temperature sensors and testing them; to see if there is
a need to calibration and when it is; a harry solution must be done.
5) Checking the mixer plates of wearing by the effect of the fluid in the tank, and
replace them if there is any.
6) Choose the suitable place for the microcontroller (PIC), far away from any contact
with the oil and the heat and also checking all electrical connections.