Production of biodiesel in COCO

[Rodrigo]

Good Morning! Jasper, would like to use the catalyst in the base (NaOH) that goes into the process together with the ethanol in the production of biodiesel by basic catalysis, the COCO library is possible to find this? or could it be replaced by another that makes the same efficiency? I am sending an attached image of the example I am doing in COCO.

[jasper]

NaOH in aqueous systems will behave as an electrolyte solution - neither TEA not ChemSepCOPP (Lite) support electrolytes at this point. It will not be easy to simulate such a system with any accuracy. Is there no way you can work around it, e.g. just put in a homogeneous reaction rate? Or do you need to simulate the separation of NaOH? Or is there a reaction in which NaOH is involved (other than as catalyst)?

[Rodrigo]

NaOH is only involving the catalyst to accelerate the reaction of the components for the production of biodiesel, is it possible to do in COCO?

[jasper]

Elaborate, what do your model equations look like?

[Rodrigo]

The components I am using are:
(Ethyl oleate, triolein, Oleic acid, Water, Ethane and Glycerol) with the equation of state (UNIQUAC) Ideal for mixtures involving alcohol. Did you see the plant I attached?

[jasper]

Yes - but this does not tell me whether you really need to model the presence of NaOH explicitly. What do your reaction equations look like?

[Rodrigo]

The Model is known for a process called transesterification I am sending an image with the reactions.
attached

[jasper]

What I am trying to determine is whether the presence of NaOH in the thermo affects reaction kinetics or equilibrium constants. The only reason to actually model the catalyst is if you need to know, say, the influence of the catalyst on the activity of the reactants, if that is an input into your reaction equations.

[jasper]

Well, to do that, you must put in a kinetics model. I suppose you have one for this system?