Two‐Phase (Bio)Catalytic Reactions in a Table‐Top Centrifugal Contact Separator

Abstract

Ein neuer Dreh in der Katalyse: Mit einem Tisch‐Zentrifugalseparator gelingen schnelle und kontinuierliche Zweiphasenreaktionen, indem zwei nichtmischbare Phasen innig vermischt und anschließend getrennt werden. Auf diese Art wurde Biodiesel aus Sonnenblumenöl und MeOH/NaOMe hergestellt. Daneben ließ sich Ölsäure Lipase‐katalysiert mit hohem Umsatz und über 13 h mit nBuOH verestern (siehe Bild).

Novel highly integrated biodiesel production technology in a centrifugal contactor separator device

“…A further increase leads to a lowering of the yield. Similar trends were observed for the biphasic esterification of oleic acid with 1-butanol catalyzed by a Rhizomucor miehei lipase [35], where a maximum at 40 Hz was observed.…”

“…5 for details. It is well known that the FAME yield is a strong function of the temperature, with higher temperatures leading to higher yields for a given reaction time [35]. Higher jacket temperatures to further enhance the yield could not be applied due to excessive methanol evaporation.…”

“…for cleaning oils spills [28]), for extraction of fermentation broths [29] and several other extraction processes [30][31][32][33]. We recently demonstrated the use of the CCS for enantioselective extractions of amino acid derivatives [34] and reported process integration in the CCS by combining biphasic (bio)catalytic conversions with the separation of the catalyst and the reaction products in the device [35]. These examples clearly illustrate the potential of the CCS equipment for the combined reaction and separation for liquid-liquid systems.…”

Processing of Soybean Oil into Fuels

“…The high shear force and turbulent mixing achieved in a contactor minimize the effect of diffusion on the reaction rate of transesterification, pushing it to be limited only by the reaction kinetics. The contactor has been used as a low-throughput homogenizer, employing very low flow rates to increase residence times to tens of minutes (Kraai, van Zwol et al 2008;Kraai, Schuur et al 2009). At ORNL, we have combined the reaction of oil and methoxide with the online separation of biodiesel and glycerol into one processing step, using a modified centrifugal contactor.…”

A Combined Reaction/Product Recovery Process for the Continuous Production of Biodiesel

“…Centrifugal mixing has been applied to biodiesel production, using the contactor as a low-throughput homogenizer, employing very low flow rates to increase residence times to tens of minutes [4]. In this study, we have combined the reaction of oil and methoxide with the online separation of biodiesel and glycerine into one processing step, using a modified centrifugal contactor.…”