Kinetic Study of Triglyceride Transesterification with Methanol Catalyzed by Calcium Oxide

• Main Authors: Wen-Xuan Zhuang, 莊文瑄
• Other Authors: Tai-Shang Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/pk6624

碩士 === 大同大學 === 化學工程學系(所) === 107 === Biodiesel as an alternative renewable fuel has become an important issue due to the shortage of petroleum energy. The most common way to produce biodiesel is catalytic transesterification of oil with methanol to yield fatty acid methyl esters and glycerol. A suitable kinetic model is necessary for biodiesel process design. Most kinetic models in the literature are simply empirical expressions and do not meet thermodynamic consistence. In this study, a new kinetic model was proposed by considering all possible catalytic reaction pathways and without assuming which step is rate determining. Some experimental data retrieved from the literature were reanalyzed with the new model to validate the proposed kinetic model. In this study, the effects of methanol to oil ratio, catalyst dose and reaction temperature were investigated. The optimal biodiesel yield of 92.0% was obtained when the reaction was performed at 12:1 molar ratio of methanol to soybean oil, reaction temperature of 65°C, catalyst amount of 5 wt% based on oil, and 150 min reaction time. The experimental results are in good agreement with those predicted by a proposed kinetic model based on Eley–Rideal mechanism.