Kinetic study of transesterification using particle swarm optimization method

Abstract

In the present work, an optimization method called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) was applied to study the kinetics of alkali-catalyzed rapeseed oil transesterification, using methanol, in a batch process. The validation of the PSO program was realized using numerical and experimental data from literature. The PSO method resulted in a 4 times lower error compared to classic methods used in the domain, which showed its efficiency and strength. After validation, an experimental study was led on the transesterification of rapeseed oil and methanol in a batch process using KOH as catalyst (1wt/wt %) with a methanol:oil molar ratio of 6:1 at 45 °C, 55 °C and 65 °C respectively. Then, PSO was used in order to determine the reaction rate constants ( ) of the reversible 3-steps of transesterification mechanism as well as the kinetic parameters (activation energy Ea and pre-exponential factor A ). Then, the kinetic model was used in order to investigate the effects of methanol: oil molar ratio variation (3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 8:1, 12:1) on rate constants, yield and conversion rate at 65 °C. The results of the simulation showed a perfect agreement with experimental results.

Analysis of the Applications of Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithms on Reaction Kinetics: A Prospective Study for Advanced Oxidation Processes

“…[129][130][131] For the specific case of kinetic models, the EAs have been employed to estimate values for the unknown kinetic rate constants, in particular, when it is a large number of unknown constants. [26,[132][133][134] This approach has been successfully employed for a variety of reactions and reactive systems. Therefore, the application of EAs could provide interesting advances on the study of AOPs.…”

Universal Kinetic Model to Simulate Two-Step Biodiesel Production from Vegetable Oil

“…Previous kinetic studies proposed that oil and alcohol type, alcohol-to-oil molar ratio, catalyst type and concentration, and reactor stirring speed were parameters to take into consideration [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Then, performing the reaction at different temperatures provided information to further calculate activation energy and, thus, rate constants.…”

“…Esterification using H 2 SO 4 as a catalyst has been carried out with methanol and either coconut or sunflower oil, and with ethanol and sunflower oil, at different temperatures and concentrations [12,13]. In the same way, methanolysis has been carried out using KOH or NaOH as catalyst, using rapeseed oil [14], sunflower oil [15,16], Pongamia pinnata oil [17], Brassica carinata oil [18], palm oil [19] or soybean oil [20,21] also at different temperatures and concentrations. However, only a few kinetic studies about enzyme-or lipase-assisted transesterification have been reported [22][23][24].…”

“…After a thorough analysis of previous studies about the kinetics of vegetable oil esterification and transesterification [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], it may be noticed that proposed mathematical models are generally similar and based on chemical stoichiometry, providing mass variation along reaction time. The input variable is the reaction rate constant, which depends on reaction conditions.…”

Mechanistic Model and Optimization of the Diclofenac Degradation Kinetic for Ozonation Processes Intensification

“…In 2019, Kadi et al formulated a mathematical model to evaluate rapeseed oil transesterification. In their study, a PSO algorithm was employed [41]. Additionally, Ding et al assessed both PSO and GA to model biomass pyrolysis based on 14 rate constants [42].…”