BIOFUELS PLANT

By: Kevin Meneses, Vivian Reyes, Juliann Hilton, and Elizabeth Kim
Goal Statement: We CAN design an environmentally sustainable
biofuels plant that is competitive with conventional refineries that
produce fossil fuels.

Environmental impact statement

To reduce atmospheric pollution, everyone can contribute to its cause. For
example, we can adopt new driving habits as driving cars and trucks account for
half of the air pollution in the world, we can select water-based products that
contain low amounts of VOC, and we can save energy by implementing new
habits.
There are many organisms in the Gulf Coast that make up our ecosystem such
as coyote, alligator, spotted sea trout, willow oak, and American elm. Although
there are animals that endangered such as the sleader rush pea, we can reduce
habitat destruction by learning the natural habitats around us, preserve existing
wetland and vegetation, plant native vegetation in our area, and encourage
protection of key habitats through legislation.
To save water, we will use timed water system, therefore, it will water the
soybean at a specific time.

ENGINEERING DESIGN
We are locating our plant at the Texas Gulf Coast in Calhoun Country, which
we will use soybeans to produce biodiesel.
Our feed-stock will be grown on-site. In order to cultivate soybeans, they
must grow in full sun with organic, well-drained matter at
Fahrenheit, sow the soybeans

12
-

inches deep,

60 70
-

degrees

and half feet apart, and their

beds must be evenly moist.

Processing soybeans into biodiesel is a complex process. First, they must go
through crushing, which oil is removed using a chemical hexane extraction.
Then, the soybean oil is converted into biodiesel by transesterification. In this
process, oil is combined with alcohol in presence of a catalyst to form fatty
esters and glycerol.
For environmental sustainability, we will blend our biodiesel with regular

20
13

biodiesel with B
Our final EROI is

, and we will use the leftover waste into fertilizer.

Inputs

water
soybeans
steam
naturalgas
alcohol
hexane
steel
electricity

Outputs

biodiesel
gases
biomass

final biofuels plant