Is Your Insurance Premium Fair?

Last month I received a letter from an Insurance company informed me S$174.96 has been deducted from my CPF account for one year premium of ElderShield insurance. It is stated that all CPF members (Singaporeans and Permanent Residents) with Medisave accounts are automatically covered under ElderShield when he/she enters 40 years old. The yearly premium is fixed over 26 years till age 65 with coverage extended only till age 85. It covers "severe disability" that refers to the inability to perform at least 3 of the following activities of Daily Living, even with the aid of special equipment, and to always require the physical assistance of another person throughout the entire activity. These activities are washing, dressing, feeding, toileting, mobility and transferring.

ElderShield provides a monthly cash payout of max. S$400 for a maximum of 72 months to help pay the out-of-pocket expenses for the care of severely disabled person. It is estimated that as many as one in 12 elderly persons suffer from disabilities as a result of ageing or illnes which render them incapable of doing simple daily activities.

After simple calculation I found the $ premium is considered too high. Please look into the following calculation and decide yourself if it is fair or not.

Annual premium is S$174.96 over 26 years --> total = S$4,548.96. That is not yet take into account their interests and their compounded interest over the years.

Starting pay premium at age of 40. At 4% interest (CPF-Medisave), an annuity of S$174.96/year over 26 years will become how much at age of 65? Simply by using this annuity-due formula S = R[((1+i)^n+1 - 1)/i] - R
It will become, S = 174.96[((1+4%)^26+1 - 1)/4%] - 174.96 = S$8,062.89

It is estimated that as many as one in 12 elderly persons will suffer from severe disability. So we are 12 persons (please regard us as a family of 12) will have paid
= 12 x S$8,062.89 = S$96,754.68 when we reach 65 year-old.

Then say one of the twelve become disable at age of 70. At age 70, the S$96,754.68 above (with 4% interest) will become = 96,754.68(1+4%)^5 = S$117,716.86
Insurance Company will get S$117,716.86 when our (the twelve elderly persons) ages reach 70 year-old.

Say one of the twelve will get the MAXIMUM i.e. S$400/month over 72 months (from age 70 to age 76). So total will get S$400 x 72 = S$28,800.00 which is ended at age 76.
The present value (at age 70) of S$28,800.00 = 28,800.00/(1+4%)^6 = S$22,761.06

*** Insurance Company will SURELY COLLECT S$117,716.86 and SPEND MAXIMUM only S$22,761.06 ***

It could be that none of those 12 elderly suffers from severe dissabilities; or he suffers but less than 3 kinds of daily living activities so that not eligible to claim).

According to my opinion, as long as INSURANCE is given to PROFIT ORIENTED organizations to manage, it will be based on ACTUARY calculation. So the end goal is to make PROFIT as high as possible. INSURANCE is GOOD if and only if it is managed by a state body which is NON-PROFIT ORIENTED. So there is a COOPERATIVE and COLLECTIVE SPIRITS. Thus the premium definitely would become much lower.

People would be very much obliged if her Highness Singapore Government is willing to manage insurances in non-profitably way especially the ones that are targeted for elderly.

I know the importance of insurance and I fully support its existence. Only I don't agree the way it is managed. That's the reason why I decided to opt-out from ElderShield.

OFFICE POLITICS - ARE YOU TOO SMART FOR YOUR OWN GOOD?

weekend TODAY • August 25 - 26, 2007 31
Knowledge can be a bad thing, if others are taking credit for it
DR MANOJ THULASIDAS

TECHNICAL knowledge is not always a good thing for you in the modern workplace. Unless you are careful, others will take advantage of your expertise and dump their responsibilities on you. You may not mind it as long as they respect your expertise. But,they often hog the credit for your work and present their ability to evade work as people management skills. People management is better rewarded than technical expertise. This differentiation between experts and middle level managers in terms of rewards is an Asian phenomenon. Here, those who present the work seem to get the credit for it, regardless of who actually performs it. We live in a place and time where articulation is often mistaken for accomplishments. In the West, technical knowledge is more readily recognised than smooth presentations. You don't have to look beyond Bill Gates to appreciate the heights to which technical expertise can take you in the West. Of course, Gates is more than an expert; he is a leader of great vision as well. Leaders are different from people managers. Leaders provide inspiration and direction. They are so realy needed in all organisations, big and small. They are not to be confused with middle-level folks who keep harping on the "big picture", the "value-chain" and such, and spend all their working hours in meetings. Why should they get such hefty salaries when they know and do so little?Technical experts are smart cookies. They can easily see that if they want to be people managers, they can get started with a tie and a good haircut. If the pickings are rich, why wouldn't they? Going the other way is a lot harder, though. For a pure people manager to become a technical expert, it takes a lot more than losing the tie. But why would anybody want to be an expert in the current corporate climate here? Slim pickings, really. Is it time to hide your knowledge, get that haircut, knot that tie, and become a people manager? It comes down to your personal choice. Knowledge gives you technical authority and a sense of indispensability. But it also sets you up for a stunted career progression. So, the choice is between fulfilment and satisfaction on the one hand, and convenience and promotions on the other. I wonder whether we have already made our choices, even in our personal lives. We find fathers who cannot get the hang of changing diapers or of household chores. Is it likely that men cannot figure out washing machines although they can operate complicated machinery at work? We also find women who can not balance their accounts or estimate their spending. Is it really a mathematical impairment, or a matter of convenience? At times, the lack of knowledge is as potent a weapon as its abundance. Yes, knowledge is a double-edged sword. Use it wisely.

The writer is a scientist from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), who currently heads OCBC’s Quantitative Analytics team. His internationally-acclaimed book, The Unreal Universe, is available in local bookstores and at www.TheUnrealUniverse.com

Three Pillars in Your Life

As per subject “Three Pillars in Your Life”, I would like to elaborate it to you. It's a bit philosophical.

Ad 1) Destiny, --> totally out of your controlThis pillar is originated from heaven. Each person has his own destiny either considered good or bad. Some is born to a rich family and some other to poor parents; some born in a developed and neat country like Singapore and some other in developing or even underdeveloped and troubled state like Afghanistan. Along your way you may desperately wish something but you never get it. On the other hand you get something you've never expected. Some incidents are not causality. That's destiny. You can't change it. Nothing you can do about it. Let's call it “luck” factor.

Ad 2) Harmony, --> some under your control; some not
This is about the level of suitability of relationship between you and your environment. You must live in a way that create and maintain good harmony with your surroundings. Good harmony will give you positive supports, mentally and psychologically, in whatever you do. This is important for your spiritual well being that may also affect your physical condition. Not all you know about harmony you can practice it. There is some disharmony you can't avoid or some good harmony you can't implement. There are quite a few of occurrences you might not understand logically but you feel it, witness it, or even experience it. Normally the more your age and life experiences the more mature you are in achieving your harmony.

Ad 3) Effort, --> totally under your control
Your effort is totally under your authority. You are the master of your mind and action. You can practice and implement it in your daily life. Good effort must have the qualities of diligent, expend, flexible, trustworthy, passionate, perseverance and if possible resourceful. Do your best whatever under your control for it is your opportunity. Otherwise you would regret yourself later since you didn't make your maximum effort that actually you could. Those properties are centralized in the quality of your creativity.

Creative Personality

What are the psychological attributes of the creator? Researchers who look at creativity from personality perspective have identified a number of attributes. First, the creator displays a genuine passion for what he is doing. Second, because of his passion, the creator is willing to expend a lot of time and energy to realize his goals. Third, he has a high tolerance of ambiguity, i.e., he can live with a lot of uncertainties during the whole creative problem-solving process. Fourth, he is willing to take calculated risks in the task. Fifth, the creator is attracted to deep and complex ideas, and has broad rather than narrow interests in life. Sixth, he is an open person, i.e., he is willing to seek out and undergo different experiences. Finally, the creator is very confident in what he is doing, and behaves with a lot of independence and autonomy as a person.

Being open to his experience in this world, having broad interests in life and being attracted to deep and complex ideas enable the creator to develop and make use of complex mental models to solve problems in the real world. However, as far as creative work is concerned, these complex mental models are not sufficient by themselves. This is eventually must be translated into concrete action. In the process, the creator will encounter a lot of obstacles to the unconventional solution which he proposes. To overcome these obstacles, the creator needs to be passionate and committed to his work, to take calculated risks, as well as to persevere in the face of severe obstacles. The going will get especially tough when the creator faces social resistance of his community. In such a situation, the creator needs to display great autonomy, independence and confidence in what he is doing; otherwise he will succumb to the pressure to conform to his community.

Low inflation rate - A success?

Asian countries have woke up from 1997 economic crisis. They have more than 3 trillions US dollars in their foreign reserve, a spectacular figure never ever before. Many of them showing good macro economic indicators. Though inflation rate seems well under control, to me this relatively low inflation is a question mark. I'd like to highlight countries with high unemployment rate and people who live under poverty line is increasing. With so many people are jobless surely they don't have money to spend. Overall country spending is less, thus pull the inflation rate down.

Therefore we have to think and analyze whether this low inflation rate is a result of good economic performance of the country or simply because of poverty of the people who don't have money for shopping even to fulfill their basic needs. If shops have no buyers then automatically the prices remain stagnant if not going lower. Thus no inflation but deflation. So the fact is that lots of people are jobless and those without their other family members' financial support are living in poverty.
The most important task for a responsible government is to create jobs for its people. Economic development alone, even at high rate, is meaningless if it can not give job to majority of the people. If government can not create the jobs or can not facilitate the conditions leading to jobs creation by private sectors then the government is considered fail.

World Economic is Built on Crude Oil - Our Earth is Getting Damaged

Economic development built on crude oil to support people's comfort, desire and their ultra modern life style within just the last two centuries has been bringing unexpected and scary consequent such as destroyed ecosystem, creating many imbalances and anomalies to the nature of our mother earth. In the past human learned how to protect him from wild animals. Now he has to learn how to protect him from himself.

Novel Esterification Catalyst

Our R&D laboratory led by author has shown a very positive progress in development and synthesizing of a novel esterification catalyst. This solid catalyst can be applied as slurry and separated out from product effluent by simple decantation or filtration. It can also be made immobilized in a fixed bed reactor. This is a non-corrosive, recoverable and reusable catalyst aimed to replace sulfuric acid as esterification catalyst. Sulfuric acid is very corrosive (after reaction water is produced) and create problem with its disposal. The novel catalyst will become a mascot in biodiesel production from PFAD feedstock or any other high FFA content oil feedstocks including used cooking oil, lard, animal fats, fish oils, etc.

Resep Membuang Batu Empedu (Gallstone) secara alamiah

Disajikan oleh: Rudy Dermawan
(untuk kalangan sendiri)

Disclaimer: Prosedur di bawah ini ditujukan untuk menolong sesama manusia yang membutuhkan “treatment” alamiah membuang batu empedu. Walaupun sudah nyata berhasil pada banyak orang namun hasilnya mungkin berlainan dari orang ke orang. Saya sendiri sudah melakukannya dan berhasil. Namun demikian pikirkanlah masak-masak sebelum mencoba. Segala apa yang timbul akibat melakukan “treatment” tersebut adalah tanggung jawab anda sendiri. Batu empedu nya ada di dalam Gallbladder.

Bahan yang dibutuhkan:
500 ml cold-pressed Virgin Olive Oil (minyak zaitun)
250 ml freshly-squeezed Lemon Juice (air jeruk lemon) atau jeruk nipis
200 ml pineapple juice (jus nanas, untuk jaga-jaga)

Prosedur:

A. Setelah buang air besar pagi, makan/minum lah hanya apple dan wortel mentah, boleh dibuat jus. Lakukan sejak pagi. Jangan makan/minum yang lain! Hanya apple dan wortel. Terserah berapa banyak anda suka.

B. Jam 12 siang stop makan/minum (juice) apple/wortel, boleh minum air putih kalau haus.

Jam 6.30 malam stop minum bahkan air putih.

Jam 7 malam
1. Minum 4 sendok makan olive oil (40 ml), lalu 2 sendok makan (20 ml) lemon jus.
Berbaringlah santai, paling baik berbaring bertumpu pada sisi kanan badan anda. Jangan buat banyak gerakan.

Setelah 15 menit ulangi prosedur 1 di atas. Terus ulangi sampai 500ml olive oil dan 250ml lemon juice habis. Mungkin habisnya pada pukul 10 atau 10.30 malam.
Catatan: Aku sendiri gak pakai sendok... langsung glegek dari botolnya.

Catatan: kalau olive oil menyebabkan anda mual-mual mau muntah, minumlah jus nanas setelah minum jus lemon. Harap dijaga jangan sampai muntah. Sia-sia dong kalau muntah.

Kemudian tidurlah sepulas-pulasnya.
Kemungkinan jam 2 atau 3 pagi anda berasa ingin berak, tapi kebanyakan sih nggak jadi berak. Beraknya biasanya nanti jam 10 atau 11 pagi. Kalau jam 2 atau 3 pagi tadi anda berak juga wah mungkin anda sehat alias nggak punya batu empedu.

Oops... jangan di flushing dulu, perhatikan ada nggak batunya. Tidak semua orang batu empedunya jelas-jelas berbentuk batu. Ada yang lembut atau malah larut oleh lemon jus. Lihat saja warna kotorannya, kalau warnanya agak hijau (bahkan hijau tua) itu berarti ada kandungan batu empedunya. Kalau anda mau bisa diambil tuh batunya dan ditaruh difreezer untuk kenang-kenangan.

Berdasarkan statistic 99% orang berhasil menjalani treatment di atas.

Biasanya setelah treatment berhasil stamina dan vitalitas tubuh anda mendadak meningkat…. Terasa segar bugar.

TREATMENT DI ATAS TIDAK BOLEH DILAKUKAN PADA:
1) Wanita hamil
2) Pengguna insulin

Orang yang menggunakan insulin setelah menjalani treatment di atas harus hati-hati terhadap kemungkinan “insulin shock”, konsultasi dokter deh baiknya.

Setelah menjalani treatment di atas sangat dianjurkan untuk mengkonsumsi makanan yang banyak mengandung: vitamin C, methionin, choline, inositol dan lecithin. Susu sekarang kalau aku nggak salah ingat mengandung sebagian besar unsur tersebut.

Oh ya itu batu empedu kalau dianalisa di lab komponennya adalah 90% kolesterol. Ya itu memang berasal dari penimbunan kolesterol. Asam empedu (yang berfungsi melarutkan kolesterol tidak cukup diproduksi oleh empedu anda) celakanya lagi seiring dengan semakin menumpuknya batu empedu kemampuan produksi asam empedupun semakin menurun... jadi tambah runyam deh!

Banyak penyakit dan keadaan ketidakseimbangan tubuh atau menurunnya tingkat kesehatan atau kesegaran tubuh disebabkan oleh batu empedu ini.
Batu empedu inilah yang membuat dokter-dokter tetap sibuk dengan profesinya.

Jangan lupa jaga BMI (Body Mass Index) anda. BMI = berat badan / (tinggi x tinggi). Berat dalam kg, tinggi dalam meter. Normalnya BMI antara 18.5 ~ 24.9. Bila anda kegemukan resiko terkena penyakit :
- Diabetes: 3 kali lipat lebih,
- Kardiovaskular: 2.9 kali lipat,
- Darah tinggi: 2.9 kali lipat.
Woow serem deh!

Penting untuk diingat…eh dilakukan (cuman diingat aja nggak ada gunanya donk):

1. Makanlah segala jenis makanan secara seimbang.
2. Minum air putih (bersih tak tercemar) yang cukup.
3. Olah raga yang cukup dan waktunya teratur.
4. Jaga stress level dalam taraf yang masih manageable. Nggak stress juga nggak bagus lho… nti otaknya tumpul lagi…he..he).
5. Jangan korupsi!
6. Berdoa kepada Tuhan YME.

Jangan takut makan makanan yang enak-enak selama anda menjalani keenam “perintah” di atas.
Lagian juga kita kan harus menikmati hidup yang salah satunya adalah makan makanan yang enak-enak!.

Terakhir: Periksalah darah, air kencing dan berak anda paling tidak lima tahun sekali, minta analisa lengkap. Total biaya analisa nya kira-kira 700ribu rupiah.

PENGALAMAN SAYA:
Melakukan treatment tanggal 22 April 2007.
Pagi tanggal 22 April saya tidak sarapan pagi. Saya hanya minum jus apel dan jus wortel plus makan wortel mentah sampai jam 1 siang. Mulai jam 1 siang sampai jam 7 malam hanya minum air putih (itupun kalau haus saja). Jam 7 malam mulai minum olive oil. Saya ngglegek saja sebanyak saya bisa, terus minum jus lemon dikumur-kumur supaya bau olive oil nya agak hilang. Jam 10 selesai minum 450 ml olive oil dan 400 ml jus lemon. Jam 12 malam merasa mual2. Saya berusaha tahan tapi akhirnya muntah juga, kira2 sebanyak 50 ml olive oil termuntahkan. Saya kumur2 dan nenggak jus lemon lagi u/ hilangkan mualnya. Jam 4 pagi (23 April) merasa mau berak tapi enggak berak. Jam 8 pagi saya berak. Keluar tahi warna orange seperti warna wortel dan banyak batu empedu (warna hijau tua) terpisah dari tahi...TAKJUB. Saya ambil batu2nya dan cuci dengan air kemudian simpan dalam freezer. Jam 9 saya ngantor badan terasa segar walaupun tidak sarapan. Makan siang di kantor. Jam 5 sore saya berak lagi (di kantor) dan keluar lagi tuh batu empedu. Total batu empedu kira2 kalau kedua telapak tangan saya dirapatkan membentuk cekungan, penuh itu batu. Wah… banyak ya? Jumlah yang saya simpan kira2 hanya separuhnya saja.

Terlampir: foto nyata hasil treatment saya sendiri.
Itu yang warnanya seperti wortel adalah ‘ee’ saya (iih jijik) dan yang hijau tua mengkilap terselimuti olive oil itu batu empedunya. Kalau yang putih itu sih toilet tissue.

BIODIESEL FROM PFAD

1. Introduction

This conventional process for biodiesel production using
1) High FFA used cooking oil
2) PFAD
as feedstock is commonly applied by all small scale biodiesel players worldwide particularly in developing countries and those areas where quality issue is not a big deal. This conventional process using H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) as catalyst can be found in many areas in China implemented by small scale (marginal) producers. In Indonesia the implementation of this process is pioneered by BPPT (Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology) in its Engineering Center in year of early 2005 and produced several hundreds to over a thousand liters (depending on PFAD supply) per day and used the biodiesel product for fueling its operational cars. Recently PT. Eterindo Wahanatama Tbk followed the suit producing biodiesel from PFAD using similar process. Another company in Indonesia also has implemented and produced PFAD biodiesel by using this sulfuric acid catalyzed process.


2. About PFAD

PFAD (Palm Fatty Acid Distillate) is a byproduct from CPO (Crude Palm Oil) refinery plant. It is taken as distillate from FFA Stripping Tower. The main product from CPO refinery is RBD (Refined Bleached & Deodorized) Palm Oil which is usually fractionated into RBD Olein and RBD Stearin fractions through cooling-down (or winterizing) and filter pressing. RBD Olein is mainly marketed as cooking oil. While RBD Stearin goes to stearic acid production and some to margarine.

The major component of PFAD is free fatty acids (Oleic, palmitic and stearic), usually in the range of 85 ~ 95%. The balances are oil/triglycerides, squalene, aldehydes, ketons, moisture and other minor impurities. The FFA Stripping Tower is considered to having high process efficiency if the FFA content in PFAD is high and triglycerides content is low. So higher the FFA content higher the process efficiency of the Stripping Tower is.

As PFAD is mainly free fatty acids and contains many impurities the quality is less stable thus its storage life is relatively shorter compared with RBD. So it is important to get relatively fresh PFAD product when purchase it, otherwise the resulted biodiesel quality could be affected.


3. Handling and Storage of PFAD

PFAD is semi/soft solid (paste) at ambient temperature in tropical region and become harder in subtropical region during cold/winter season. Therefore its storage tank needs bottom heating coils and all its loading and unloading pipelines including pumps, valves and fittings requires steam tracing. The required level of temperature is not high, 45~50 oC is usually sufficient. It is recommended not to heating up PFAD into too high temperature during storage and handling as there is a higher risk of oxidation compared with RBD, limit the temperature to just enough to keep it flow-able.

Storage tank construction material should be of SS304 or epoxy-coated SS400 but bottom heating coils should be from SS316L. Pipelines, valves and fittings materials should be from SS316L or SS307 depending on operating temperature.


4. Chemistry

The conversion of PFAD into biodiesel involves esterification and transesterification reactions. Esterification converts FFA into biodiesel and transesterification converts oil/triglycerides into biodiesel. The stoichiometry of the reactions is as follows:

FFA + MeOH = Biodiesel + H2O (1)

Oil + MeOH = Biodiesel + Glycerin (2)

Almost all FFA (at least 98.5%) is converted into biodiesel by reaction (1) which is acid catalyzed esterification that could also converts part of oil into biodiesel. The remaining oil is converted into biodiesel by alkali catalyzed transesterification reaction (2).

As the oil content in PFAD is relatively small (only a few percentages) the glycerin produced is also very small and it is dispersed/dissolved totally in bulk methanol~water~sulfuric phase at the bottom of reactor after reaction is finished.


5. Process Description & Procedures

5.1) MeOH is charge into reactor followed by sulfuric acid and then PFAD. Agitator may be switch-on when starting PFAD feeding (please check with agitator vendor the minimum required liquid level before switch it on, the minimum required liquid level depends on agitator's design).

5.2) While feeding-in PFAD, heating-up could be started. Maintain reactor temperature at 65oC. Reaction time is approximately 3~5 hours depending on reactor size and design. The end point for reaction (1) is acid value. AV should be max. 2 mg KOH/g sample.

5.3) Sample taken from reactor must first be washed with water several times before being used for AV analysis.

5.4) If AV <= 2 then stop agitator and do settling. Drain bottom layer into a suitable container (bottom layer is very acidic, pH <1). pfad =" XX*(end-point" av =" 2;" mg =" 1.5%;" dg =" 1.1%;" tg =" 0.9%" pfad =" XX*(2)" xxx =" 64.19" pfad =" 1000" meoh =" 630" h2so4 =" 50" biodiesel =" 930" excess =" 542" waste =" 50" glycerin =" 0.6" soap =" 10" losses =" the">98%) is not corrosive so it can be stored in carbon steel SS400 tank. But in aqueous H2SO4 will dissociate perfectly into 2 H+ and (SO4)2-. These H+ ions that cause the corrosive properties. It exhibit strong corrosion power at any concentration as long as water is presence at enough amount to dissociate H2SO4 into its ions. It is found that the corrosive power is worst at 60% concentration. At elevated temperature it become stronger. At this condition stainless steel is not suitable even SS316L can not stand long. One year ago the price of SS304 plate was USD3.4/kg. Now its price is USD5.5/kg; and SS316L is USD8.7/kg.

2) As sulfuric acid also has strong hygroscopic and oxidative power especially at high concentration, it is not strange if the color of its biodiesel product is dark. Please be extra carefully with all of your body when handling concentrated H2SO4. It will burn you and turn your finger into charcoal instantly.

3) Recovery of methanol is another major issue as MeOH-Water-H2SO4 solution is corrosive. The concern is the construction material of the methanol recovery column particularly its bottom areas. Besides, with 400% excess methanol requires versus 100% with RBD palm biodiesel, this PFAD process requires higher steam energy.

4) Used sulfuric acid is not recoverable. Its disposal is another big issue. It must be neutralized first with alkali usually caustic soda. For every 50 kg 98% sulfuric acid needs 41 kg of 98% caustic soda for neutralization. Its neutralized product namely Na2SO4 salt is not without problem. If it is discharged into waste water treatment plant it will contribute to high dissolved solid in waste water that give more burden to the waste water treatment plant. This is another additional cost as treatment chemicals are needed to reduce this dissolved solid into allowable level.


8. Challenges to Find Better Process

The author and his team are currently working on alternative catalysts thus processes that are better in many senses than sulfuric acid catalyzed process. With many years and intensive experience the author is confident with the invention of a new process that is less corrosive and giving a better quality of biodiesel product. Besides the possibility of recovery of catalyst so that it is reusable thus eliminating environmental issue.

First we will apply the new process in batch reactor w/o water removal system; then batch process w/ water removal system and later-on complete w/ methanol and catalyst recovery system. Finally it will be applied to continuous process with water removal system plus probably reactive distillation and methanol and catalyst recovery system.

The objectives of new process technology are:
- Much less corrosive process
- Better product quality
- Higher product yield
- Lower methanol consumption
- Lower methanol excess thus lower recovery cost
- Recovery and recycle of catalyst, thus cost saving and
at the same time solving environmental issue created by sulfuric acid.

While the chemistry is quite simple, process engineering for PFAD continuous process is pretty complex. The author foresee, for this PFAD process, maintaining methanol balance which is in combination with water removal system around each of CSTR could be the most challenging issue. However, that is the heart of PFAD biodiesel continuous process and once it is solved the benefit will be great including big reduction in methanol feed rate to reactor from 500% of stoichiometry requirement (i.e. 400% excess) to only 200% of sthoichiometry which is 100% excess.

Feedstocks

Two major categories:
1. Triglycerides (oil) and/or
2. Free fatty acids
Examples:
1. Edible oils: canola, cashewnut, coconut, corn, palm, peanut, rapeseed, soy, sunflower, etc.
2. Non edible oils: cottonseed, jatropha, kapokseed, etc.
3. Animal fats
4. Used cooking oils
5. Palm fatty acid distillates (PFAD)
6. etc.
Any other substance that contain triglycerides and/or free fatty acids can be used as feedstock.
However, as freight cost could be a significant add-in factor to your feedstock price, choose locally available and cheapest feedstocks.