BIODIESEL PRODUCTION CONTROLLED BY PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLERS (PLC) (#2254)

Authors

Cevallos Echevarria, Alejandro Nestor

Abstract

Abstract—Petroleum-derived fuels cause severe climate change and considerable harm to public health, hence the need to replace them with biofuels. According to the ASTM D6751 (B100) specification, biodiesel uses raw materials based on soybean, sunflower, rapeseed, and used cooking oils, making it a non-polluting, biofuel with sustainable production, strengthening countries' energy security and saving foreign currency compared to oil imports, which benefits the economy, particularly that of Peru. Therefore, the objective of this project is to automate biodiesel production using programmable logic controllers (PLCs) with Ladder logic software and a production monitoring system using a human-machine interface (HMI). The method to be used is an experimental approach to intentionally manipulate the independent variables (causes) and analyze their effects on a dependent variable (effect). The PLC allows the control of input variables by connecting sensors, such as temperature sensors, which generate data to control the output variables that act on the reactors. [5] This method allows the manipulation of one or more study variables to control the increase or decrease of these variables and their observed effects. The result has been the successful control of reactor behavior using PID with a gain Kc=700, which, for a temperature of 60°C, and after statistical data analysis, yielded a mean squared error of approximately 2.66°C, an acceptable result for the quality of biodiesel production.