Control of Temperature in Biodiesel Water Removal System

Abstract

Currently, biodiesel has been implemented as substitution of petroleum diesel fuel in order to reduce carbon emission and counter global warming. However the quality of biodiesel is one of the issues that need to be addressed, especially water content that may increase due to its hygroscopic nature. Biodiesel water removal process using the vacuum drying method can reduce water content. In this process, heating control becomes an important thing to able to maintain the quality of biodiesel. The control strategy using the integral, proportional integral, and proportional integral derivatives method is not suitable to be applied to the biodiesel heating system because there is an overshoot which results in a decrease in the quality of biodiesel. The derivative proportional control method does not cause overshoot and reaches the set point value faster than the proportional control method.