The Impact of Biodiesel Production on Water Systems in Urban Areas

P. A. SORICHETTI; S. D. ROMANO

Advances in Energy Research

NOVA Science Publishers Inc

Año: 2011;

The viability of biofuels as a tool for sustainable development depends on the careful consideration of all the relevant environmental, social and economic factors at each stage of the process. However, the impact of water consumption and effluent generation from biofuels production is frequently ignored. The effluent from the production process of biodiesel is mainly in the wash water, containing varying amount of alcohol and catalyst. It should be mentioned that if recovery techniques are not adopted, the amount of water used in washing steps is high. In small -and medium- scale production plants, where for economic reasons is not feasible to use such techniques, the water to purifiedFAME volume ratio can reach values in the range from 100% to 150%. This indicates that although Biodiesel production in plants of small and medium scale is an interesting alternative for many communities around the world, to achieve sustainable production of biodiesel in these plants it is necessary to minimize the impact on the community drinking water supply and sewage systems, through proper plant design and control of the washing process during production. In this chapter, the measurement of electrical properties of water and effluent in the purification process, as a tool for the optimization of water use in biodiesel production, it is discussed. In addition, the improvement in the efficiency of water use achieved by controlling the electrical properties during the different stages of the production process is analyzed. The results presented in this work show that the use of electrical techniques is a useful and economically viable contribution toward this goal.