Techno-economic assessment of conventional and direct-transesterification processes for microalgal biomass to biodiesel conversion

The simplified direct-transesterification (DT) process was compared to the conventional biodiesel production process based on a reported previous experimental work with economic standpoint. Based on the process flow diagram, capital and operating costs were itemized properly and then unit biodiesel production cost was calculated. The results show the biodiesel production costs were 18.2 $ kg⁻¹ (conventional process) and 12.5 $ kg⁻¹ (DT process), respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows the source of biomass and chemical consumption are the major factors to determine total biodiesel production cost. The affecting factors were a solvent recycling, yield of biodiesel, and plant capacity and these values were varied to evaluate the variation of unit biodiesel production cost. As a result, the maximized biodiesel production cost went down to 3.5 $ kg⁻¹, which is cost-competitive with other reported values of production cost.