Simulation and kinetic study of transesterification of triolein to biodiesel using modular reactors

Modeling of a membrane reactor system for crude palm oil transesterification. Part II: Transport phenomena

“…56 Table 3 tabulates the diffusion coefficient of solutes in MEOH solvent obtained from the present work and literatures. It is noticed that the Maxwell-Stefan diffusion coefficients calculated in the present work were differed by partly two orders of magnitude with the literature values as reported by Stamenković et al 58 and Portha et al 57 This is quite reasonable considering that diffusion is the movement of individual molecules through the layer of molecules of the same substance (self-diffusion) or other substances (binary diffusion in which the molecules of two substances interdiffuse). 59 This shows that the diffusion coefficients obtained in the present work are acceptable to the study.…”

Response surface method and genetic algorithm assisted optimal synthesis of biodiesel from high free fatty acid sal oil ( Shorea robusta ) using ion-exchange resin at high temperature

“…At 100 rpm, mixing Reynolds number of the transesterifying fluid was found to be $3000 using a 3.5 cm diameter six-blade flat turbine impeller (i.e., in the turbulent flow regime) and it helped to create tiny oil droplets with very small characteristic diffusion time in comparison to the characteristic reaction time [46]. Considering, the diffusivity of oil to methanol (D OM = 6.19 Â 10 À10 m 2 s À1 ) and average micro droplet size of methanol (r 0 ) = 0.04 mm [47], the characteristic diffusion time r 2 0 =D OM was found to be $2.6 s. In addition, di-glycerides and mono-glycerides act as a surfactant that stabilizes methanol micro droplets in a continuous oil phase. Therefore, mixing just below 100 rpm agitation speed, mass transfer resistance of glycerides to methanol is no longer limited in trans-esterification reaction.…”

Biodiesel production from vegetable oil: Process design, evaluation and optimization

“…One of the common modifi cations in batch production is the application of a series of Completely Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTR) to improve heat transfer and production yield. As can be seen in Figure 2, the CSTR series can also be replaced by a Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) to increase conversion fraction as well as total processing time which drops to 6-10 minutes only 23 . The choice of alternative, however, depends on potential technical troubles, material handling's manner as well as cost/ benefi t balance.…”