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Esterification pretreatment of free fatty acid in biodiesel production, from laboratory to industry
Citation:
Chai, M., Q. Tu, M. Lu, AND Y. J. YANG. Esterification pretreatment of free fatty acid in biodiesel production, from laboratory to industry. FUEL PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 125:106-113, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Making biodiesel from recycled oils and fats has expanded from household to commercial operations as a sustainable way to produce alternative energy and reduce waste. However, the high free fatty acids (FFA) content in waste cooking oils can greatly reduce the efficiency of the alkali-catalyzed transesterification reaction that is most commonly used in making biodiesel. Acid-catalyzed esterification is usually a necessary pretreatment step to decrease the FFA content to be suitable for transesterification. In this study, a waste vegetable oil with 5±0.5% wt. FFA was converted into biodiesel via a two-step reaction, acid-catalyzed esterification pretreatment followed by alkali-catalyzed transesterification. The effects of temperature, methanol and catalyst quantities were quantified for the kinetic rates in pretreatment reactions. Optimum reaction condition was found at a temperature of 60± 5 °C, the methanol-to-FFA molar ratio of 40: 1-50: 1, and 10-12.5% wt. sulfuric acid. The activation energies of the esterification process ranged from 20.7-45.9 kJ/mol.
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Esterification pretreatment of free fatty acid in biodiesel production, from laboratory to industry