Effects of Weight Hourly Space Velocity and Catalyst Diameter on Performance of Hybrid Catalytic-Plasma Reactor for Biodiesel Synthesis over Sulphated Zinc Oxide Acid Catalyst

Abstract

Biodiesel synthesis through transesterification of soybean oil with methanol on hybrid catalytic-plasma reactor over sulphated zinc oxide (SO4 2-/ZnO) active acid catalyst was investigated. This research was aimed to study effects of Weight Hourly Space Velocity (WHSV) and the catalyst diameter on performance of the hybrid catalytic-plasma reactor for biodiesel synthesis. The amount (20.2 g) of active sulphated zinc oxide solid acid catalysts was loaded into discharge zone of the reactor. The WHSV and the catalyst diameter were varied between 1.55 to 1.546 min -1 and 3, 5, and 7 mm, respectively. The molar ratio of methanol to oil as reactants of 15:1 is fed to the reactor, while operating condition of the reactor was kept at reaction temperature of 65 o C and ambient pressure. The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) component in biodiesel product was identified by Gas Chromatography -Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The results showed that the FAME yield decreases with increasing WHSV. It was found that the optimum FAME yield was achieved of 56.91 % at WHSV of 0.895 min -1 and catalyst diameter of 5 mm and reaction time of 1.25 min. It can be concluded that the biodiesel synthesis using the hybrid catalytic-plasma reactor system exhibited promising the FAME yield.

Enhancing Brønsted and Lewis Acid Sites of the Utilized Spent RFCC Catalyst Waste for the Continuous Cracking Process of Palm Oil to Biofuels

“…Biofuels, such as biodiesel (FAME, fatty acid methyl ester), green gasoline (bio-gasoline), green kerosene, and green diesel (fossil diesel-like), can be produced from vegetable oils. Biodiesel production from vegetable oils was widely studied by researchers, in which the most developed process of biodiesel production was transesterification. − However, biodiesel needs to be mixed with fossil diesel, and its hygroscopicity caused the clogging in the engine filter . Furthermore, the engine needs to be modified for the use in mixtures with fossil diesel at levels above 20% .…”

Production of biodiesel: kinetics and reusability studies of the Mg–Al hydrotalcite catalyst using Jatropha oil

“…Hence, 3.0% catalyst loading can be considered the optimum loading level in this process. It was also reported by Buchori et al 55 that with increasing the amount of catalyst, the available surface area accessible on the catalyst relative to the total volume of the reaction medium would increase. As a result, more basic sites are available for the catalytic reaction, increasing the reaction rate between the adsorbed reactant molecules and the reactive species.…”

Nano-Magnetic Catalyst CaO-Fe3O4 for Biodiesel Production from Date Palm Seed Oil

“…As expected, it has been observed that the yield of biodiesel increases when the weight percent of the catalyst increases. This is due to the increase of the available surface area of the catalyst per unit volume of the reaction media, and hence, the increase of the basic sites required for the catalytic reaction [24]. Figure 8 shows the effect of the reaction temperature on the yield of biodiesel.…”