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An integrated reactive distillation process for the production of biodiesel is proposed. The reactive separation process consists of two coupled reactive distillation columns considering the kinetically controlled reactions of esterification of the fatty acids (FFAs) and the trans-esterification of the tri-di and mono glycerides with methanol, respectively. The conceptual design of each reactive distillation column was performed through the construction of reactive residue curve maps in terms of elements. The design of the esterification reactive distillation column consisted of one reactive zone loaded with a solid catalyst (titanium oxide supported on silica TiO 2 /SiO 2 ) and for the trans-esterification reactive column two reactive zones loaded with solid catalyst (hydrotalcites (CHT) and MgO). Intensive simulation of the integrated reactive process including the complex kinetic expressions for the different reactions and the Cubic-Plus Association (CPA) thermodynamic model was performed using the computational environment of ASPEN Plus. Results showed that the amount of fatty acids (FFAs) and water in the oil fed play a key role on the performance of the trans-esterification reactive distillation column while for the esterification column is not significant.

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