Can a castor oil biorefinery produce biodiesel and biochemicals simultaneously?
Goal and outline The goal of this paper is conceptual design, simulation and economic analysis of a castor oil biorefinery for producing simultaneously biodiesel and bio-chemicals. Four distinct processes are studied, from which two regard castor oil transesterification, followed by fatty ester pyrolysis and undecylenic acid amination.
How Castor oil biorefinery process fatty methyl ricinoleate ester (famre)?
The first processing step in a castor oil biorefinery is the synthesis of fatty methyl ricinoleate ester (FAMRE) by transesterification. FAMRE can be valorised firstly as biodiesel. Further a certain amount of FAMRE is submitted to conversion in bio-chemicals.
Is castor oil a sustainable non-edible resource for chemical process industries?
Conclusions Castor oil is a valuable sustainable non-edible resource for chemical process industries. Biorefinery offers the best frame for valorisation. The paper presents the conceptual design and the economic evaluation of a modern castor oil biorefinery, which involve the analysis and flowsheet synthesis of four processes.
How does castor oil supply affect prices?
Because the majority of the world’s castor oil production is concentrated in these three countries, supply fluctuations from year to year can dramatically influence prices and availability. In 2021, global castor oil production topped 767,000 tons.