Dynamical modeling for biodiesel production from grease trap wastes

Grease trap wastes have been recently considered as an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production due to its relatively low cost and availability. These wastes are characterized by a high content of free fatty acids (FFA) and then, its processing towards biodiesel requires an esterification. In this paper, a dynamical model for the esterification of grease trap wastes was constructed. Specifically, this process has been conducted within a continuous stirred tank reactor. Almost all the parameters contained in the dynamical model were deduced from a series of batch temperature-controlled esterification experiments and from thermodynamic essays. The rest of the model parameters have been successfully estimated by means of a proposed algorithm that combines the notion of sensitivity with the Levenberg-Marquardt procedure. This regression procedure provides the estimates in spite of load and temperature variations and processing low-cost measurements. Finally, the proposed dynamical model has been validated with the runs test. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.