Process Assessment of Integrated Hydrogen Production from By-Products of Cottonseed Oil-Based Biodiesel as a Circular Economy Approach

Cottonseed oil (CSO) is well known as one of the commercial cooking oils. However, CSO still needs to compete with other edible oils available in market due its small production scale and high processing cost, which makes it a potential candidate feedstock for biodiesel production. To date, transesterification most widely applied technique conversion vegetable biodiesel, glycerol produced by-product. Large-scale also implies that more will be produced, can further utilized synthesize hydrogen via steam reforming route. Therefore here, an integrated from was simulated using Aspen Hysys v11. Simulation results showed has good characteristics compared standard biodiesel. An optimum steam-to-glycerol ratio found 4.5, higher reaction temperatures up 750 °C resulting yield selectivity. In addition, simple economic analysis this study process economically viable.