Spanish Chemists: A neural network process optimization 4 biodiesel.

[NNadir]

In spite of Hatrack's sad report on the death of the Spanish olive trees owing to global climate change induced drought, Spanish chemists have been working on the use of olive oil as a motor fuel. (Oh well, it was a good idea at the time.) Because of the high cost of the raw materials for biodiesel (various biological oils and alcohols) process improvements offer the best opportunity for providing biodiesel a lower cost.

This team of chemists report as follows:

Most developed countries are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of environmental preservation. In this sense, to achieve a high level of environmental protection, environmental policies are promoting the use of renewable energies, punishing the emission of pollutants, and financing the research and use of renewable energies. Among many other alternative fuels for diesel engines that are derived from vegetable oils in its pure form, blended with diesel fuel or alcohol, winterized, and so forth, the one called biodiesel is the most widely accepted alternative to diesel fuel because of the similarity in its properties when compared to those of diesel fuel.1-3 Also, this alternative fuel for diesel engines emits a lower amount of the most regulated pollutants compared to diesel fuel.4 Biodiesel is produced by the transesterification of triglycerides (which can be found in animal fats and vegetable oils) with an alcohol in the presence of a homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst. This reaction results in the production of monoalkyl esters, also called biodiesel, and glycerol as a byproduct.5
One of the main problems related to the wide acceptance of biodiesel is its economic viability. In this sense, to extend the use of biodiesel, it is important to decrease the costs related to biodiesel production. Otherwise, the transesterification of fats and oils provides a costly fuel compared to diesel fuel. In fact, it is reported that approximately 70-95% of the final cost of biodiesel arises from the cost of the raw materials.6,7 So, to decrease the final cost of biodiesel, it is important to select inexpensive or low-cost raw materials, that is, used frying vegetable oil.8-11 On the other hand, time-consuming and costly laboratory tests are required to conduct the optimization of the parameters involved in the transesterification of the oils or fats, at each working condition. For this reason, it is of interest to implement a simulation process to accurately predict the biodiesel yield evolution while varying the initial condition values, thus, substituting part of the laboratory tests.
Along these lines, an artificial neural network (ANN) model
is an abstract simulation...

Of course now the Spanish chemists will have far less biological oil, specifically olive oil, with which to make fuel, but it would have been nice. As they line up and wait on the petroleum queue, maybe than can reflect on what could have been.

This by the way is my 5000th post on DU. Thanks to all at DU for the memories.