Non-catalytic alcoholysis process for production of biodiesel fuel by using bubble column reactor

Experimentally Calculated Study of the Effectiveness on the Process of Non-Catalytic Synthesis of Biodiesel in Reactors of Various Type

“…As seen in Figure 1, a low partial pressure of methanol (~0.5 MPa) up to the stoichiometric ratio of the components shows a good solubilization of methanol with vegetable oils. Apparently, the residual concentration of methanol in the oil due to a negative deviation from Raoul's law made it possible for Japanese researchers to obtain acceptable results of a non-catalytic process in a bubbler reactor at atmospheric pressure and temperatures of 250-290 °C [19].…”

Esterification of Oleic Acid in a Semi-Batch Bubble Reactor for Biodiesel Production

“…Recently, gas-liquid reactors have been designed to produce biodiesel. Studies have shown that bubble column reactors are more efficient and versatile for biodiesel production and process intensification (Joenialingsih et al, 2014;Stacy et al, 2014;Joenialingsih et al, 2012;Leonard et al, 2015;Wulandani et al, 2015;Hagiwara et al, 2015). Joelianingsih et al (2014) developed a bubble reactor to evaluate the reactivity of the main FFA found in oils and fats at 250 °C by feeding superheated methanol vapor bubbles to the reactor at a rate of 4 g/min in the absence of catalyst.…”

Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of Biodiesel Production in a Semibatch Bubble Reactor

“…15−17 Some studies have shown that biodiesel production is intensified by using gas−liquid reactors. 14,18,19 The main aspect related to process intensification in gas−liquid reactors is the effect of the vapor bubbles. In this type of system, each bubble in contact with the liquid phase may be considered as an individual microscale gas− liquid contactor where reaction takes place.…”

“…A more recent application of bubble reactors is biodiesel production. , In this process, the alcohol is fed to the reactor as superheated vapor bubbles, and some of it is transferred to the oil phase to react and form biodiesel by transesterification or esterification reaction, where the last is commonly chosen as the main pretreatment step for feedstocks containing high amounts of free fatty acids, which need to be converted to biodiesel before base-catalyzed transesterification takes place to prevent saponification. − Some studies have shown that biodiesel production is intensified by using gas–liquid reactors. ,, The main aspect related to process intensification in gas–liquid reactors is the effect of the vapor bubbles. In this type of system, each bubble in contact with the liquid phase may be considered as an individual microscale gas–liquid contactor where reaction takes place.…”

“…For the case of acid-catalyzed esterification, some authors reported that high FFA conversions are achieved in relatively short reaction times when gas–liquid reactors are used instead of the classical homogeneous process. ,, Since esterification is a reversible reaction that produces biodiesel and water as byproducts, bubble reactors operated at temperatures higher than 100 °C may be an excellent choice, since at this operating temperature all the water generated during reaction is continuously removed from the products, which reduces the reverse reaction rate (biodiesel hydrolysis) considerably and shifts the reaction equilibrium toward the products resulting in higher biodiesel yields. ,, Furthermore, this reactor configuration presents some advantages compared to conventional reactors from a technical and economic standpoint. First, since the excess alcohol and byproduct water vapor are continuously removed from the reactor, no additional step to separate these components from the products is required, and the cost of downstream processing is reduced .…”