title: Scale-up and economic analysis of biodiesel production from municipal primary sewage sludge.
abstract: Municipal wastewater sludge is a promising lipid feedstock for biodiesel production, but the need to eliminate the high water content before lipid extraction is the main limitation for scaling up. This study evaluates the economic feasibility of biodiesel production directly from liquid primary sludge based on experimental data at laboratory scale. Computational tools were used for the modelling of the process scale-up and the different configurations of lipid extraction to optimise this step, as it is the most expensive. The operational variables with a major influence in the cost were the extraction time and the amount of solvent. The optimised extraction process had a break-even price of biodiesel of 1232 $/t, being economically competitive with the current cost of fossil diesel. The proposed biodiesel production process from waste sludge eliminates the expensive step of sludge drying, lowering the biodiesel price.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olkiewicz
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carmen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Laureano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Font
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain. Electronic address: christophe.bengoa@urv.cat.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bengoa
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels / Q000191:economics*; D003132:Commerce; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D008055:Lipids / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018803:Models, Economic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012722:Sewage; D012997:Solvents; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D008055:Lipids; D012722:Sewage; D012997:Solvents; D062065:Wastewater; D014867:Water
keywords: Biodiesel; Economic evaluation; Lipids; Process modelling; Sewage sludge