Palm Fatty Acid Biodiesel: Process Optimization and Study of Reaction Kinetics

Abstract

The relatively high cost of refi ned oils render the resulting fuels unable to compete with petroleum derived fuel. In this study, biodiesel is prepared from palm fatty acid (PFA) which is a by-product of palm oil refinery. The process conditions were optimized for production of palm fatty acid methyl esters. A maximum conversion of 94.4% was obtained using two step trans-esterifi cation with 1:10 molar ratio of oil to methanol at 65 . Sulfuric acid and Sodium hydroxide were used as acid and base catalyst respectively. The composition of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) obtained was similar to that of palm oil. The biodiesel produced met the established specifications of biodiesel of American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The kinetics of the trans-esterification reaction was also studied and the data reveals that the reaction is of fi rst order in fatty acid and methanol (MeOH) and over all the reaction is of second order.

Two-step Biodiesel Production from Crude Jatropha curcas L. Oil Using Ultrasonic Irradiation Assisted

“…Rather, acid catalyzed transesterifi cation is advantageous for oil having high FFA content, as acid catalyzes the FFA esterifi cation to produce biodiesel, increasing the biodiesel yield, however, the reaction time and alcohol requirement is very high 13 . To solve these problems, a two-step transesterification process acid catalyzed esterification followed by alkaline catalyzed transesterification was developed to remove the high FFA content in order to improve the biodiesel yield 14,15 .…”

Reaction Kinetics of Transesterification with Titanium Alkoxide-Based Phase-Transforming Catalyst

“…Kinetic aspects of triglyceride transesterification have been widely studied. ,,,, However, almost all previous studies concentrated on common basic catalysts (sodium and potassium hydroxides or alkoxides) and inorganic acids (primarily sulfuric acid). − ,− Although a handful of studies have investigated the kinetic aspects of heterogeneous catalysts, ,, no studies have yet been published on the titanium isopropoxide system. Because the catalyst initiates the reaction in its homogeneous form, the system was analyzed as such.…”

Exploring the biodiesel potentials of waste avocado fruit oil

“…The variation of HC emission with engine load is presented in Figure 12 which depicts the hydrocarbon HC content of the variation blends. Petroleum diesel generated higher HC emission when compared to the biodiesel fuel, there was significant decrease in HC emission as quantity of biodiesel in the blends increased at higher engine loads, and this may be attributed to the availability of oxygen in biodiesel, which facilitates better combustion (Yadav, 2010). HC emission for biodiesel also decreased with increase in engine load and this may be attributed to high fuel consumption.…”