SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

UPSCALE OF BIODIESEL PRODUCTION IN IFRANE:

PILOT DESIGN, UPGRADE AND AUTOMATION

Capstone Design

April 2017

Alia Razid

Supervised by Dr. A. El Asli

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. El Asli for his incredible assistance, availability and

understanding as well as his trust in me by giving me the opportunity to work on this project that

speaks to me and to my eco-centric worldview. By the same occasion, my special thanks go to

every faculty member who has contributed to shaping my education, nurturing my knowledge and

building up my opinions. Many thanks go to Dr. Sendide who played a big role in my student life

and apprentice researcher experience, who challenged me but always believed in me, and fostered

my love and dedication for biology and the environment; an admirable person and a role model

that I will always look up to. I owe my self-confidence to him, to my supportive friends, to my

mother and without forgetting to mention Dr. Venables, who made me believe in myself like I

never did before. My thoughts go to all my supportive friends, who were there for me throughout

my ups and downs and with whom I shared this incredible journey.

The entire undergraduate experience would not have been the same without them.

To my parents and my family members, who did everything they could to provide the best

conditions for my education and self-fulfillment, I am very grateful for the family support system

and will always be thankful for that privilege that not everyone has.

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CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 6
2 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................... 8
3 BIODIESEL ............................................................................................................................................ 12
3.1 Definition .................................................................................................................................... 12
3.2 The making of Biodiesel: ............................................................................................................. 12
3.3 Glycerol: a waste or a resources? ............................................................................................... 15
3.4 Comparison of biodiesel and petroleum diesel: ......................................................................... 16
3.5 Why biodiesel? ............................................................................................................................ 17
4 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................. 18
4.1 Project Description...................................................................................................................... 18
4.2 Business Plan............................................................................................................................... 20
4.2.1 Market Analysis ................................................................................................................... 20
4.2.2 Marketing plan .................................................................................................................... 24
4.2.3 Design and Development Plan ............................................................................................ 26
4.3 Process flow design ..................................................................................................................... 29
4.3.1 Environmental relevance .................................................................................................... 29
4.3.2 Pilot design .......................................................................................................................... 33
4.3.3 Pilot automation ................................................................................................................. 39
5 PRODUCTION COST ............................................................................................................................. 42
6 COMPETITORS ..................................................................................................................................... 44
7 STEEPLE analysis.................................................................................................................................. 45
7.1 Social Aspect: .............................................................................................................................. 45
7.2 Technological aspect: .................................................................................................................. 45
7.3 Economic aspect: ........................................................................................................................ 46
7.4 Environmental aspect: ................................................................................................................ 46
7.5 Political and legal aspect: ............................................................................................................ 46
7.6 Ethical aspect: ............................................................................................................................. 46
8 Conclusion and future work ................................................................................................................ 47
9 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 48

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ABSTRACT

Environmental awareness and the fight against climate change is the topic of the decade. Different

incentives are being establish in order to achieve these goals and reduce the environmental impact

caused by humans. Pollution is a concern and the emission of greenhouse gases is closely

inspected. Governments around the world have been working extensively in order to come up with

solutions to reduce their environmental footprint. COP22 is one of the latest official gatherings in

order to come up and implement strategies in that prospect.

Ifrane has the reputation of being the cleanest city in Africa and 2nd cleanest worldwide. Al

Akhawayn university in Ifrane had been working on several projects to promote this image while

at the same time targeting sustainable development. Biodiesel is a renewable and sustainable

source of energy that can be used as a substitute to petroleum diesel. This report shows the

importance of biodiesel and its environmental impacts. It also investigates different aspects of its

use and production by using used cooking oil and an on-campus pilot to produce biodiesel.

As a result, we were able to come up with a business plan to be established and conceptualized an

upscale pilot-unit based on the existing one on eDraw. The automation of the pilot is also made

possible with a programmable logic controller following a pattern and condition checks presented

in the next pages. The production cost of biodiesel from waste cooking oil is calculated using

different scenarios, and in all of them it is cheaper than petroleum diesel. The possibility to market

it is presented through posters, flyers, pins and a customized car that will be used for that purpose.

By that, we aim at producing around 250L per week of biodiesel to be used at the university level

to fulfill a part of its energetic needs.

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1 INTRODUCTION
Biodiesel is a renewable resource that started emerging and being used in diverse countries. In the

prospect of using waste as an energy source, this project is aiming at the upscale of the already

existing biodiesel production pilot at Al Akhawayn university. Morocco has been making efforts

aiming at a sustainable approach for its energy production in order to meet its growing energetic

needs. However, the potential of bioenergies is still not a priority. When most of the recently

established projects in Morocco are focusing on solar and wind energy, our project is solely

focusing on biodiesel production from waste cooking oil. Households, restaurants and businesses

have been throwing away this useful resource for centuries, which results in polluting water

resources and increasing CO2 emissions. By thinking outside the box and in the frame of a circular

economy to reduce waste production and optimizing its use, we will focus on a closed loop system

that generates little to no waste. Everything is converted into a beneficial resource, in the same

way that the world is aiming at lowering the dependency on fossil fuels and to be oriented towards

sustainability. Since the population, technology and energetic needs are increasing drastically and

so is the stress put on the environment. Orientation towards environment protection has been a

priority for several environmental agencies and regulations have been established in order to limit

its negative outcomes. In addition to that, renewable energies are now the new trend and had been

promoted and encouraged by governments worldwide as they lower the energy bill, contribute to

a circular economy and decreases dependency on increasingly depleted resources. It adopts a view

that support the idea that we, as human beings, can sustain ourselves and at the same respect the

environment. Bioenergies are a growing field that is being adopted in that prospect.

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It tackles different sources of energy (wind, solar, thermal…). Biodiesel is a renewable resource

that uses feedstock as a source of energy. It goes in hand with what have been mentioned earlier.

In our case, we will focus on the making of biodiesel from used cooking oil.

More precisely, in this capstone, we will upgrade an existing pilot unit and therefore increase

biodiesel production in Ifrane. A new approach to automate the design will be suggested in order

to minimize the physical intervention of human force in each and every step of the process flow.

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2 BACKGROUND
The world population has been increasing considerably in the previous decades, which is directly

related to a growing desire and need for energy. Fossil fuels are widely used and relied on in the

production of energy in different fields. They are considered as massive sources of energy work

to generate electricity and power, making the industry, manufacturing and transportation possible.

It had been documented that the use of coal goes back to 1100 BC. As a matter of fact, coal was

used in the middle Ages in Europe, more specifically in forges and breweries. Later on, with the

spread of cities, coal was massively used as a source of heat in buildings and as an electric power

supply. To sum up, fossil fuels make up a huge and majoritarian part of the energy pool of the

world. In the same sense, nowadays oil is the primary source of energy in the transportation

industry. This oil is extruded from underground reservoirs. When it comes to natural gas, it solely

depends on the country’s natural reserves. Fossil fuels have however two major drawbacks; the

first one being the relatively high emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil

fuels and all its implications in terms of global warming, biodiversity, sea level rise… The second

drawback being their continuous depletion due to the intensive use and the increased demand. As

a matter of fact, fossil energy reserves are declining at a scary rate and are projected to decline

significantly by an approximation of 40% to 60% in the next two decades. [1][2]

Renewable energies are the big trend of our time, but it does not stop there. Huge interest and

investment have been put toward clean energy development in order to limit climate change and

its effects on the Earth’s ecosystem. Renewable energies are being developed worldwide as clean

sources of energy. They provide comparable efficiency with fossil fuels but with little to no

greenhouse emissions. In addition to that, as their name suggest, they are renewable, which means

that the problem of depletion earlier faced is automatically out of the picture, since renewable

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energies are diverse (wind, solar, hydraulic, biomass…) and abundant. Another point worth

mentioning is their cost, as previously mentioned, fossil fuels require a considerable investment in

their extraction and treatment, whereas renewable energies had proven that their payback period

was significantly more appealing as when the production process is set and the initial investment

is made, expenses are less important with time.[1]

Countries in the world have shifted their orientation toward renewable energies, focusing on

research in this field and implementing large projects in that prospect. The following graph shows

the consumption of fossil fuels vs. the renewable energies in the past few years.

Figure 1 World consumption of fossil fuels (1960-present) [3]

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As shown in the graphs, we can see a significant decrease in the use of fossil fuels and consequently

an increase in reliance on renewable energies worldwide.

Figure 2 World consumption of renewable energies (1990-2012) [3]

In Morocco, dependency on fossil fuels is very important as it is estimated to be about 68%. In

addition to that, Morocco still has to import coal, natural gas and oil in order to meet its energy

consumption needs. With the growing demand, it is necessary to come up with solutions to

compensate the need.

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The graph below shows the energy supply and demand in Morocco as well as the population on a

time span going from 1960 to 2012:

Figure 3 Morocco's Energy supply and demand trends

We can clearly notice an important gap between energy consumption and energy production.

Renewable energies are the plan considered by the government to fill in the gap. Noticeable

projects are already on the run such as: Ouarzazate Solar Power Station and Amogdoul Wind Farm

in Essaouira.[4][5]

The project of this capstone is in the same spirit, and it targets the production and upscale of

biodiesel in the region of Ifrane. In the next pages, more details will be presented, including a

design plan for the pilot, a business plan and a feasibility study.

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3 BIODIESEL
3.1 Definition
Biodiesel is a substitute of conventional diesel but is produced by using feedstock and renewable

resources (recycled cooking oil, vegetable oil, plants, animal fats…). It is a clean-burning,

biodegradable and non-toxic fuel[6]. It has a very comparable performance with regular diesel

fuel, meaning that it can used in any compression-ignition car engine. Biodiesel is commonly

produced through the chemical process of transesterification, which will be discussed in more

details later on. In other words, the energy acquired from biofuels is via carbon fixation, which is

a chemical process that converts inorganic carbon to organic compounds. Biodiesel plays an

important in the sustainable world. As a matter of fact, we will discuss its environmental

implications as well as a comparison between fossil fuels. Biodiesel can be found in different

percentages, either as a pure substance or as a blend with petroleum diesel. The percentage in the

naming corresponds to the percentage of biodiesel in the mixture, for example B100 refers to pure

biodiesel. The percentage commonly used is B20 and B5 for regular diesel engines with no need

to change anything within the engine [7]. Biodiesels come with advantages and disadvantages, in

different aspects that we will discuss further in this paper.

3.2 The making of Biodiesel:

First, some historical contextualization would be appropriate. In 1885, Rudolf Diesel, who is the

creator of the diesel engine, used for the demonstration of diesel fuel peanut oil as a source of

energy. The use of vegetable oils was highly encouraged by the scientist as he believed that they

had a promising future in the engine fuel industry. The only restriction at the time was the high

viscosity levels that are found in vegetable oils that cause detrimental combustion problems [8].

Transesterification is considered as one of the methods which are used to reduce levels of viscosity.

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It enables the production of biodiesel, as mentioned before, a fuel similar in characteristics as

diesel [9].

The use of renewable sources of energy was overlooked for almost half a decade due to the

flourishing of the petroleum industry which was a cheap and easier option to opt for. However, the

increased worldwide demand for energy and the depletion of fossil resources lead to growing

interest for an alternative fuel [6][8].

The chemical term for biodiesel in chemistry is “mono alkyl ester (C19H36O2)” and it is one of the

results of a transesterification reaction. The chemical composition of oils and fats (that are the

primary source of biodiesel) consists of triglyceride molecules. Each molecule is composed of one

glycerol molecule that is ester bonded to several fatty acids chains. During transesterification,

molecules of triglyceride react with an alcohol (ethanol, methanol…) to produce esters (biodiesel)

and glycerol. A better picturing of the reaction would be that the glycerol parts of the glyceride

molecules are substituted by molecules of monoalcohols, which results in three molecules of ester

[6][8]. The characteristics of biodiesel produced are determined depending on the composition and

the structure of the fatty acids that are linked to glycerin, The reaction needs the presence of a

catalyst, most of the times sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide is used for it being a strong

alkaline. The choice of alcohol is relevant to the kind of ester produced: if methanol is used, methyl

esters are produces whereas if ethanol is used, ethyl esters are produced. It should be noted that

the reaction is reversible which means that an additional amount of alcohol needs to be added in

order to force the chemical reaction towards esterification [6][8].

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The equation can be expressed as follow:

Figure 4 Transterification reaction [6]

As we can see from the equation, the products are biodiesel and glycerol. Glycerol is a co-product

that is generally considered as waste but it can be valorized and used for other useful purposes

(cosmetics, soaps, detergents…).

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The following flowchart shows each step of the production process with some details about the

purification and phase separation following the initial transesterification:

Figure 5 Biodiesel production process flowchart [6]

3.3 Glycerol: a waste or a resources?

Glycerol can be valorized by being used in the making of soaps, pharmaceutical product,

detergents… However, this process requires the purification of it from alcohol, catalyst and other

impurities. Research is targeted towards the valorization of biodiesel production co-product. One

of them was done at the University of California in Riverside. It aims at using a mix of glycerin

and biomass in order to make combustible pellets that can substitute coal. This initiative is directed

at the creation of a renewable energy from waste. The pellets showed positive results when

compared with coal (“Zero waste biodiesel”) [10].

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 3.4 Comparison of biodiesel and petroleum diesel:
The use of biodiesel is considered as safer than the use of petroleum fuel due its low volatility.

Based on a study on biodiesel development, it had been shown that using biodiesel reduces the

risk of accidental ignition. It is directly linked to the flash point temperature which is the

temperature of the formation of a mixture that is combustible. For instance, gasoline is

characterized by a flash point temperature as little as -40 F which enables the formation of a

combustible mixture very quickly. In comparison, the flash point temperature of biodiesel is 266

F, making it harder to become a combustible substance. Therefore, this property makes biodiesel

a non-flammable substance, easier and safer to store and transport [11].

Depending on the percentage of each blend mixture, the performance of biodiesel differs. A study

[9] investigated this aspect and focused also on comparing biodiesel blends with regular diesel oil.

The findings of this research are quite promising as they show several aspects of the fuel in favor

of biodiesel.

Smoke opacity is noticed to be lower in biodiesel blends when compared with diesel oil as shown

by the following graph:

Figure 6: Comparison of smoke opacity in different diesel blends [9]

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Another important characteristic to look at is thermal efficiency. Through a series of experiments,

it has been found that biodiesel blends have a higher thermal efficiency when compared to diesel

fuel [9].

Biodiesel is biodegradable and renewable. It degrades at a faster rate than petroleum diesel and is

also non-toxic, since it is produced from renewable resources. Without forgetting to mention that

the availability of fossil fuels is decreasing day after day due to their extensive usage. The demand

for fuels is increasing while the supply is decreasing, creating a gap in satisfying the demand. The

extraction of fossil fuels is expensive and difficult when compared to the production of biodiesel

[12].

3.5 Why biodiesel?

We mentioned earlier how Morocco was and is still struggling to meet its growing population

energetic needs. An important question however poses itself. Why would biodiesel be a plausible

solution? Researches have been working on the question for the past decades and came up with

different answers to that question through experimentation, 𝐶𝑂2 emission tracking, performance,

chemical composition and waste generation. Morocco is highly dependent on fossil fuels for its

energy supply to the extent of spending 102.5 billion Dirhams in 2013 for its energy imports based

on the official reports of the Ministry of Energy and Environment [13], a big hole in the country’s

budget and a heavy energy bill. This impacts negatively the country’s trade balance and creates a

sense of vulnerability for the economic and political stability. This is not the only challenge that

Morocco faces in terms of energy, subsidies granted by the government are causing a significant

stress on the national budget [14]. Biodiesel can be considered as an interesting approach

addressing Morocco’s national economic and energetic issues. The country has a high potential

for bioenergy due to the significant generation of different kinds of waste (agricultural, animal,

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municipal). As its definition suggests, biodiesel is made from waste fats and oils which goes in

hand with what we have mentioned. Furthermore, compared to its neighboring countries Morocco

has low fossil fuels supplies, which makes them even more at risk of depletion. Biodiesel

production would eventually leverage the dependency and over usage of the world’s limited fossil

fuel supplies. Environmentally speaking, using biodiesel will contribute greatly to the reduction of

𝐶𝑂2 emissions as well as significant changes in air pollutant emissions [15]. In following sections,

the environmental advantages of biodiesel are discussed in further details.

4 METHODOLOGY
4.1 Project Description
The objective of this capstone project is to upscale the production of biodiesel and designing a

pilot that produces it by recycling used cooking oil. The project engulfs different aspect: biological,

chemical, engineering, economical and societal. It will target Ifrane’s community (mostly its

restaurants, businesses, households…) in order to gather a sufficient amount of cooking oil at a

free cost. A marketing campaign is being elaborated including presentations and flyers to let the

population know about the purpose of the project. The oil will go through several processes all

contained in the pilot design part to get biodiesel in larger amounts than the amount already

produced at AUI (from 50L to 250L).

For us to meet our objective, we have to follow several phases. The analysis phase consists of fully

understanding and design a transesterification reaction process. Secondly, we will search for

potential sources of the biomass needed since the production of biodiesel at Al Akhawayn

University was limited to the used oil from on-campus restaurants. Furthermore, our investigation

of the campus-made pilot enabled us to come up with an upgraded design allowing us to upscale

its production capacity and lowering manual maneuvers during the production process. Another

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important aspect of our production is the purchase of one of the reactants necessary for the reaction:

methanol. Morocco’s interest for sustainable development has increased during the last decades as

mentioned earlier, in the goal of improving the quality of life of Moroccan citizens, fulfilling

energy need and ideally closing the gap between energy demand and supply. In addition to that,

Morocco incentive to reinforce the preservation of natural resources from exhaustion and depletion

is playing in favor of our project. As a matter of fact, millions of liters of cooking oil are being

thrown away as wasteful resources by households and different businesses polluting water

resources when they can be used as a source for biodiesel production. Eagerness to reduce 𝐶𝑂2

emissions is also a driver of the initiative as Morocco has been working closely on the matter.

Statistically, as of 2013, it has been reported that Morocco emits around 1.75 metric tons of 𝐶𝑂2

per capita [16]; a number that the government is actively trying to reduce. In the next sections, we

will discuss our project in further details.

At the level of Al Akhawayn university, the annual diesel consumption can be summarized as

follow:

Usage Annual Diesel Consumption (m3)

Bld 13 174
Bld 14 (SAO) 13
Bld 38 76
Bld 39 124
Off-Campus 240
Transport 60
Total 687 𝐦𝟑

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Whereas the annual production of waste oil in liters is approximated to be around 1701L/year.

By using a B5 blend, this will only compensate for 5% of the annual diesel need. If oil is collected

in the city of Ifrane, this percentage can go up to 40% (by using a B5 mixture).

4.2 Business Plan

4.2.1 Market Analysis
In the prospect of market segmentation, it is compulsory for us to define our potential customers,

who would be mainly the population of Ifrane that we will meet with through associations and

organizations and raise awareness towards protecting the environment, reducing CO2 emissions,

limiting pollution and sustaining Ifrane’s image as the second cleanest city worldwide. The success

of our project will promote this image and contribute positively to Ifrane’s attractiveness and

respect to the environment. By meeting with Ifrane’s community, we hope we will make them

more aware of the importance of the project in the long-term as well as its relevance to the

environment protection and preservation cause.

As a realistic first step, we will start by targeting Al Akhawayn students, faculty and locals

(restaurants) as well as different businesses in Ifrane (coffee places, hotels, restaurants…) to

investigate the outcome of the project on a small scale before extending its implementation to the

whole city of Ifrane. Targeting a small scale community gives us more control and more efficiency.

Moreover, it will a starting point to spread the culture of environmental awareness across the

region. Eagerness to contribute to the project won’t stop at the level of biodiesel use but also to

the valorization of glycerol. Students and faculty can purchase soap and cleaning products at a

very low price made from waste. Also, our ideal goal would be to sell biodiesel at a lower price

than petroleum diesel to encourage its production.

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In a country where environmental awareness is not yet a priority, profitability can play a role in

changing that in small steps. By showing the customer that he or she will benefit economically

from buying biodiesel instead of regular diesel, it will trigger a bigger interest for the product

suggested. Legally, we still need to talk to the authorities about the possibility of commercializing

it.

In order to understand customers’ potential behavior, we made a survey to investigate

environmental awareness on campus and willingness to contribute to the project and eventually

buy biodiesel instead of petroleum diesel. It will give use a preliminary idea about the number of

participants to anticipate the amount of biodiesel that should be produced on a weekly basis. A

part of the survey included a section about the implementation of a ‘green fee’ of 50 Dirhams per

semester that will be used as a long-term fund for the project as well as other projects focusing on

sustainability development and environment protection. The idea is to create a Sustainable

Development department within the university made by the students for the students, with the help

of faculty members to enable scholars to implement their projects. The results of the survey have

shown promising results and had been summarized in the next subsection.

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 4.2.1.1 Survey results and analysis
Several questions were asked to the audience and a total of 154 random responses had been

gathered.

The questions were oriented toward

environmental awareness and the

possibility of creating a sustainability

fund to finance feasible project in the

field elaborated by the students. Several

universities in the US are doing the

same, by implementing a fee per

semester called “a green fee” that the

students have to pay to contribute to the

“Sustainability office”.

After analysis the results, we can say

that most of the students consider

Figure 7 Survey overview

themselves as environmentally aware.

When it comes to contributing to the fund, 83.1% said yes:

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By suggesting to pay a green fee of 50 MAD/semester, which will add up to a total of

125 000 MAD/semester if all the students agree to pay. This represents a considerable fund to

invest in sustainable projects. Ideally, there would be a jury evaluating students’ proposals and

feasibility study and awarding the winner/winners with the financing of their respective projects.

From the answers gathered, it would be preferable to make the fee optional since not all the

students were favorable for the fee implementation. Raising awareness can be an option to opt for

in order to convince the students by the initiative. Awareness campaigns can be held for that matter.

The next question was specific to biodiesel purchase:

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As we can see, most of the participants of the survey were concerned about its price compared to

petroleum diesel. In the comments sections, most of the concerns were mainly about how biodiesel

would affect the engine. This brings us to the disadvantages of biodiesel and the precautions that

should be taken before using it.

One of the main reasons why we are using different blends of biodiesel (which means mixing a set

percentage of biodiesel with petroleum diesel) is due to the engine’s compatibility with the solvent

effect of biodiesel. There is a chance of filter clogging due to the actual cleaning effect of biodiesel.

This happens due to the accumulation of deposits in the filters. This is mainly the case for B100.

Most of low-level blends are regulated by the ASTM International and ensure safe operation.

These low-level blends don’t require any engine modification [17].

However, one should be careful in a city such as Ifrane that is characterized by its cold weather. It

has been reported that biodiesel might gel in cold temperatures but this solely depends on the oil

composition. For that reason, it is important to abide by ASTM regulations and specifications to

ensure the engine proper functioning [18].

4.2.2 Marketing plan

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this capstone project is to collect sufficient used cooking oil

in the city of Ifrane, process it in our designed pilot, upscale the production from 50L to 250L and

valorize glycerol into cleaning products and soap.

The mission of our project would be phrased as the following: “Tous pour un avenir vert” or “ ‫جميعا‬

‫ ”من أجل مستقبل أخضر‬which translates to “All for a green future”. The reason our mission is

originally in French and Arabic is for the common understanding of our target customers who

predominantly are fluent in Arabic and French only.

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When it comes to the internal environment of the project, it includes Pr. Elasli who is supervising

all the work, the region of Meknes-Fes who finances the biodiesel project, a team of Al Akhawayn

Business students (Ali Mountassir, Hajar Arif, Sabrine Lemghari, Salma Annasse, Soufiane

Squouqaa and Soufiane Chbani) who kindly helped with the business plan establishment and

myself who worked on the economic, social and engineering part of the project.

The external environment of the project consists of the community of the small town of Ifrane as

well as Al Akhawayn University.

When it comes to our marketing strategies, they involve the distribution of flyers in French, Arabic

and Darija across campus and in the region of Ifrane. Presentations will be presented to the public

in order to know more details about the project. Furthermore, a representative video will be

accessible to the public for a better understanding of the entire process. On campus awareness will

help spread the world even outside and the community will get larger with time.

A poster had been designed with the kind help of the talented Ahmed Lekssays for that purpose:

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 4.2.3 Design and Development Plan
4.2.3.1 Product development:
As previously mentioned, the starting point is to collect used cooking oil from the facilities

targeted (restaurants, hotels, coffee places, on-campus restaurants…). When dealing with oil

collection, it is important to think of the design of different containers for the following purposes:

Container1:

Given away to facilities. This container will be of a small size and will have a capacity of 50L as

it is the estimated waste produced by restaurants.

The following table summarizes Al Akhawayn waste cooking oil production:

Table 1:AUI used cooking oil generation [19]

Annual Production of used

Location cooking oil

Newrest 840

Proxirest 840

Annex 21

Total 1701 L

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The container is designed in a way that will enable a preliminary filtration of the oil from

impurities. Different design are available and we decided on the following design after a close

examination of its practicability, ease to be used and transported:

Figure 8: Container design 1 [20]

The original design is inspired by DBM international import-export [20].

The material is virgin and made of recycled PP material which makes it 100% recyclable. The

handle is designed in such manner that it facilitates its carrying and emptying. The filter that can

be seen at the top is removable and allows the customer to effortlessly get the first oil filtration

done. The container also includes an inner filtering system that is easy to clean when needed.

In order to make its movement easer due to its weight when full, a supplementary feature can be

added which consists of small wheels at the bottom of the container [20].

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 Container 2:

This second container will be in building 7 (where the pilot unit will be located), waste cooking

oil will be pumped from this large container to biodiesel reactor. This container has a large capacity

of 1000L.

Car:

The purchase of a car is a preferable option in order to facilitate the transportation process. It will

be designed in such way that it can be used as a marketing tool as well, painted in a vibrant green

color to fitting sustainability. The car itself is going to run entirely with biodiesel to promote its

use. A Peugeot Partner car is one of the options, since it is large enough to enclose Container 2. A

used Peugeot Partner car costs roughly 55,000 DHs.

The second option is to request a security car from the same brand or an equivalent one that could

hold our container.

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 4.3 Process flow design
4.3.1 Environmental relevance
From a study previously done by Professor El Asli and Professor El Hajjaji, the annual

consumption in terms of petroleum diesel at AUI had been estimated to be about 687𝑚3 which

generates 1876 tons of CO2 per year. By using Al Akhawayn carbon calculator that estimates the

carbon compensation offset in dirhams that will be used for the planting of trees. The total number

of trees to be planted is 4415, and knowing that a single tree costs 85 MAD, the total cost adds up

to be: 𝑂𝑓𝑓𝑠𝑒𝑡 = 𝑁°𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑠 × 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 → 𝑂𝑓𝑓𝑠𝑒𝑡 = 4415 × 85 =

375 275 𝑀𝐴𝐷 [21]

As we can see, the price to compensate one year of CO2 emissions is quite considerable, by

comparing the CO2 emissions if biodiesel is used, we can notice a significant decrease of the

offset.

Based on a study performed by Stanford University [15], the following comparison was made

showing how different biodiesel blends lower at different percentages CO2 emissions.

Figure 9: CO2 Emission comparison [15]

29
In the literature, diverse percentage are shown going up to a 95% CO2 emission in B100 blend.

Biodiesel is however carbon neutral, which means that the emission coming out from it can be

directly reused by plants in the process of photosynthesis.

Following the model that the Stanford study realized, we can calculate in our case an estimation

of the net CO2 emission if blends of biodiesel are used instead of petroleum diesel. The graph

below summarizes our findings:

Comparison of Net CO2 Emissions

at AUI
Tons of CO2/year

1876
1582.2184

404.278

Petroleum Diesel B20 B100

Figure 10: Comparison of Net CO2 Emissions at AUI

30
The following diagrams show the distribution of the consumption of diesel between all the

different campus and off-campus facilities and buildings:

Figure 11: Diesel consumption distribution at AUI (on and off campus) [19]

One of the goals of our project is to provide AUI with sufficient biodiesel to meet an important

part of its energetic needs and by the same way reducing CO2 emissions considerably. Our optimal

goal is to be able to produce 250L/week. However, depending on the kind of blend we are making,

this quantity can be multiplied by a factor. We did our calculations and found the following:

31
 Biodiesel Production in
Liters
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
B100 B20 B5

Figure 12: Biodiesel production in Liters using different blends

If we decide to produce a 100% blend, it will be equivalent to using 1L of waste cooking oil and

converting it to 1L of biodiesel. With different blend percentages, the overall quantity produced

is multiplied since biodiesel is blended with petroleum diesel.

Table 2: Biodiesel production depending on the blend

Biodiesel
Blend Production(L) Composition
B100 250 100% Biodiesel
B20 1250 20% Biodiesel + 80% Petroleum
B5 5000 5% Biodiesel + 95% Petroleum

32
 4.3.2 Pilot design
Earlier, we approximated the local waste production of AUI restaurants (estimated to be

40.6L/week) and in the prospect of the upscale of the project to a production of 250L, we launched

our campaign to collect waste cooking oil from businesses and restaurants in Ifrane. Our optimal

goal is also to target households by doing awareness campaigns in schools and associations to

inform the public of our initiative.

In order to reach that goal, we worked on the construction of a new campus-made processor that

is inspired from the existing one with modification to upscale its production. We are aiming at

going even further with the design by automating it without having to purchase a commercial

processor but instead using a programmable logic controller (PLC controller) that consists on a

simple automation of the pilot by using heat sensors and the reaction times of the consecutive

process step in order to minimize manual interactions between the steps. In the previous pilot

design, human intervention was needed between each step which was not convenient for an

optimal and faster production. In the following sections, an introduction and a brief description of

the process will be given, in addition to the algorithms used in the PLC controller.

On-campus pilot
(30L capacity)

Upgrade of the pilot

Text capacity (250L)

Automation of the
system (PLC
Text controller)

Continuous
development and
regional upscale

33
 First of all, a brief description of the steps followed in our pilot [19]:

• Filtration of the waste cooking oil

0

• Pumping of oil to the thermo-heater

1

• Pre-Heating of the oil (60°C-90°C) --> use of solar energy

2

• Condensation of water from the oil

3

• Pumping of condensed water

4

• Loading of recovery water tank

5

• Addition of oil to methoxide solution(+catalyst)

6 • Reaction+agitation at 60°C (insulating wall)

• Setting and draining of glycerol

7

• Transfer of crude biodiesel from reactor to thermo-heater + drying + cooling

8

• Boiling of methanol
9

• Recovery of methanol + loading of reactor

10

• One cycle water washing of biodiesel with recovered water

11

12 • Pumping of biodiesel to filters

• Dry-washing of biodiesel --> Final result: PURE BIODIESEL

13

34
Process explanation:
0: Waste cooking oil filter
Our starting point is to use a simple filter to eliminate any left out debris from the initial filtrations
from the designed containers previously mentioned.

1: Pumping of oil to the thermo-heater

Our thermo-heater that uses energy partially from solar energy includes a two-ways pumping
device enables the pumping of the waste oil from the container to the thermo-heater through the
filter.

2: Pre-Heating of the oil (60°C-90°C)

The oil is pre-heated at a temperature of 60°C in the thermo-heater, then dried at 90°C to get rid
of traces of water, to finally cool down to 60°C again.

3: Condensation of water from the oil

Water vapor goes through the pipe and is converted to water via the condenser.

4:Pumping of condensed water

Condensed water is pumped to the recovery water tank.

5: Loading of recovery water tank

6: Addition of oil to methoxide solution (methanol+catalyst)

The oil is then pumped out to the reaction tank that contains the methoxide solution.

6: Reaction+agitation at 60°C (insulating wall)

Thanks to the insulating wall of the reaction tank, the transesterification reaction is carried
away at a temperature of 60°C. The agitator enables the thorough mixing of the reactants. At the
end of the reaction, the results are biodiesel and glycerol.

7: Setting and draining of glycerol

With the help of gravity and due to density disparity, the reaction products separate with the
glycerol at the bottom of the solution. Glycerol sets after a couple of hours and can be drained out
from the reaction tank with the help of a decanter. The glycerol container is transparent permitting
the exact separation of it from biodiesel.

35
8: Transfer of crude biodiesel from reactor to thermo-heater + drying + cooling
Crude biodiesel is pumped in again to the thermo-heater in order to be treated. It is again pre-
heated at a temperature of 60°C. When it reaches 65°C, the methanol left out in the crude biodiesel
starts to boil. The biodiesel is then dried at 90°C and let to cool down to 60°C.

9: Boiling of methanol
At 65°C, methanol starts boiling and goes through the condenser in order to be recovered and
reused as a reactant in future batches.

10: Recovery of methanol + loading of reactor

Methanol is recovered after condensation and is pump in to the reactor tank (the one that previously
contained the methoxide solution).

11: One cycle water washing of biodiesel with recovered water

Biodiesel goes through only one-cycle of water washing with the recovered water from the reaction
since the quantity condensed is not enough to run several cycles. In addition to the fact that water
washing is not as environmentally friendly as dry washing since it consumes important quantities
of water.

12+13: Dry-washing of biodiesel (pumping to filters) --> pure biodiesel

Biodiesel undergoes dry-washing as well to ensure its purity. It is pumped to two successive filters.
The first one being made out of sawdust bed and the second one from resin bed. This is our last
step before successfully draining our pure biodiesel into its container.
[19]

36
The final design implemented is as follow

37
 Biodiesel design flow

10

4
11

Sawdust filter

3 9

12

2nd filter 2
6
5

Thermo-heater 8 7

0
13 1
Glycerol

0: Waste cooking oil filter 6: Reaction+agitation at 60°C (insulating wall)

38
1: Pumping of oil to the thermo-heater 7: Setting and draining of glycerol

2: Pre-Heating of the oil (60°C-90°C) 8: Transfer of crude biodiesel from reactor to thermo-heater + drying + cooling

3: Condensation of water from the oil 9: boiling of methanol

Waste cooking oil
4: Pumping of condensed water 10: Recovery of methanol + loading of reactor
Pure biodiesel Recovered water
 4.3.3 Pilot automation
Programmable logic controller is “an industrial solid-state computer that monitors inputs and

outputs and makes logic-based decisions for automated processes or machines” [23]. The reason

we chose to opt for this automation device is for its simple usage, the possibility of plugging it into

diverse setups, its resistance to harsh conditions (temperature, moist, dust…). A PLC system reads

the inputs as signals, these signals can be either sensorial, keyboard input, or switches. It requires

a programming device. The outputs are in the form of motors activation, pumps or solenoid

valves.[23]

Figure 13: PLC System [22]

In order for us to automate the pilot design previously presented, we need to purchase and install

new devices to the systems. The valves should be replaced by solenoid valves. Heat sensors should

be integrated to the tanks in order to measure temperature at different phases. These would

represent our inputs and controls. Our outputs will consist of turn on/off the pumps, and switching

the valves automatically.

39
Automating the system will require an elaborated code that takes into consideration the different

stations and all the different valves. A function block diagram language is preferred, and will

mainly focus on defining classes such as: valves and stations. An observer design pattern will be

followed in order to automate the system depending on the inputs of the sensors and reaction times.

The following automated process flow had been designed, from which function block diagram or

an equivalent language can get inspired in order to be run in the PLC controller.

40
Valve1: waste oil to thermo-heater Valve6: Water recovery tank to thermo-
Valve2: thermo-heater to condenser heater
Valve3: condenser to water recovery tank Valve7: Sawdust Filter
Valve4: Thermo-heater to Reactor Tank Valve8: Resin Bed filter
Valve5: Condenser to Reactor Tank Valve9: to Pure Biodiesel container

41
5 PRODUCTION COST
The reactants needed for the biodiesel production are as follow [19]:

o Methanol
o Potassium hydroxide
o Sulfuric acid
o Sawdust
o Dry ion exchange resin
o Waste cooking oil

By collecting the waste cooking oil, the price of one of our primary resource goes down to costing

nothing (0DHS).

Methanol is the reactant that has a relatively high price in Morocco, averaged to 13.3 MAD/liter.

In our research for other retailers, we found a company retailer in Mumbai, India that sells

industrial chemicals and supplies, and therefore liquid methanol. The price is estimated to be 2.7

MAD/liter [23]. This does not include the shipping cost since we were unable to find an exact cost

for it. We called this our optimistic price scenario. When considering buying the methanol from a

local retailers in Casablanca with one of the lowest costs in the Moroccan market of 9.2 MAD/liter

of methonal, the cost rounded up to 3.026 MAD/liter. The table below shows the details of our

calculations.

42
This gives us an estimation of the production cost of one liter of biodiesel as follow: (inspired by

the initial estimation made by Pr. El Asli and Pr. El Hajjaji)

Table 3: Biodiesel cost estimation [19]

Components Amount needed Optimistic price Realistic price

Methanol 0.123 L 0.728 1.1316

Potassium hydroxide 10 g 0.2 0.2

Sulfuric acid 0.0012 L 0.021 0.021

Sawdust 1.5 g 0.03 0.03

Dry Ion exchange resin 1.5 g 0.19 0.19

Waste cooking oil 1L 0.17 0.17

Electrical usage - <1 <1

Antioxidant additive 0.002 L 0.12 0.12

Winter additive 0.003 L 0.17 0.17

Approximated total price 2.7 MAD/L 3.0326 MAD/L

43
Compared with the recent prices of diesel in Morocco as shown in the figure, the production and

use of biodiesel is not only more environmentally friendly but it is also cheaper. The average cost

in 2017 can be approximated to be around 8.74 MAD/liter.

Figure 14: Morocco's petroleul diesel prices [24]

6 COMPETITORS
In Morocco, the full potential of biodiesel is not taken advantage of. The field that our project is

based is a growing field in the Moroccan context and is also a field of interest for the Moroccan

government who is making great efforts for that cause. There is only one known company,

Kilimanjaro Environment that collects and transforms used cooking oil. It is considered as the

leader company in Morocco and it collects used oil from about 2500 locations. It is focusing on

big cities such as Rabat, Marrakech, and Tangier…[25][26] They mainly deal with restaurants,

hotels and cafés. Most of the collection is however exported to European countries. The vision of

the company is to double its production capacity by 2020 and to be able to transform and fully

benefit from biodiesel production and ideally use it in Casablanca’s buses. For now, negotiations

44
with the Ministry of Environment are still ongoing. One of the limitations of Kilimanjaro’s

business is the lack of Moroccan regulations and legislation when it comes to the use, production,

selling and distribution of biodiesel. [25][26]

As part of our project, it is our duty to sensitize the population of Ifrane for the environmental

cause by distributing flyers explaining the goal of our project, setting up meetings with large

communities to further explain what biodiesel is and what our plan of action is about. Moreover,

in case of promising success of our project that would eventually enable us to enlarge our zone of

action and enlarge our target segments, we should make sure to build a strong platform of loyal

customers with the potential appearance of new competitors. It would mean a continuous

improvement of our product to ensure customer satisfaction and a continuous assessment of the

quality of our product.

7 STEEPLE analysis
7.1 Social Aspect:
The use of biodiesel promotes an image of social responsibility towards the environment.

Reaching out to the community of Ifrane in order to collect used cooking oil will raise awareness

when it comes to the use of feedstock and will stress on the importance of renewable energies.

7.2 Technological aspect:

The upscaling of the already existing pilot from a production of 50L to 250L. We will be working

on the engineering part of the project by focusing on its upscaling, performance and automation.

We designed a large-sized container that we will use weekly in order to launch the production of

biodiesel. Smaller containers will be designed and distributed to our providers.

45
 7.3 Economic aspect:
The production of biodiesel can be competitive to petroleum diesel if a good deal is found to

purchase methanol, which is the most expensive part of the production. The establishment of a

business plan is under study in order to optimize our use of resources. Used cooking oil will be

collected for free from households and restaurants in the city of Ifrane.

7.4 Environmental aspect:

Biodiesel is biodegradable, non-toxic and its use reduces considerably greenhouse emissions. Our

main goal is to make our production a closed loop and a zero waste process. For instance, we are

also concerned with the valorization of glycerol. Biodiesel is a form of clean energy since it enables

a clean combustion and is low in emissions with a high fuel efficiency. It contributes greatly to

sustainable development and lowers the impact of global warming.

7.5 Political and legal aspect:

No legislation or regulations when it comes to biodiesel use and production in Morocco. Lack of

governmental subsidies.

7.6 Ethical aspect:

Raising environmental awareness and use of waste products. It also promotes recycling and

closed loop products, which decreases stress on the environment. The entire process is made with

respect to the environment and nature.

46
8 Conclusion and future work
From our study of the feasibility of the project and given the resources provided, we strongly

believe in the success of our project. Biodiesel has a promising future in the Moroccan market and

fits properly its energetic needs. The pilot design has been successfully made as well as the

attempted automation of its flow. However, due to time constraint, we were unable to buy the

sufficient elements necessary for the upgrade. We are planning to keep up with the project until its

realization. In addition to that, in order to automate the system, a student with enough computer

programming background is needed to code the automated process flow in an object oriented

language so that it can be linked to our PLC controller. Future tests should be done to ensure the

workability of the design process suggested. Furthermore, a phone application can be designed to

facilitate the collection of the waste cooking oil so that clients can send a message when the oil is

ready to be collected.

47
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50