Effects of water on the esterification of free fatty acids by acid catalysts

Author

Ji-Yeon Park, Zhong-Ming Wang, Deog-Keun Kim and Jin-Suk Lee

Renewable Energy, 2010, vol. 35, issue 3, pages 614-618

Abstract: To maximize the production of biodiesel from soybean soapstock, the effects of water on the esterification of high-FFA (free fatty acid) oils were investigated. Oleic acid and high acid acid oil (HAAO) were esterified by reaction with methanol in the presence of Amberlyst-15 as a heterogeneous catalyst or sulfuric acid as a homogeneous catalyst. The yield of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) was studied at oil to methanol molar ratios of 1:3 and 1:6 and reaction temperatures of 60 and 80°C. The rate of esterification of oleic acid significantly decreased as the initial water content increased to 20% of the oil. The activity of Amberlyst-15 decreased more rapidly than that of sulfuric acid, due to the direct poisoning of acid sites by water. Esterification using sulfuric acid was not affected by water until there was a 5% water addition at a 1:6 molar ratio of oil to methanol. FAME content of HAAO prepared from soapstock rapidly increased for the first 30min of esterification. Following the 30-min mark, the rate of FAME production decreased significantly due to the accumulation of water. When methanol and Amberlyst-15 were removed from the HAAO after 30min of esterification and fresh methanol and a catalyst were added, the time required to reach 85% FAME content was reduced from 6h to 1.8h.

Keywords: Soapstock; Esterification; Water production; Amberlyst-15; Sulfuric acid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (7) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148109003528
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:614-618

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Series data maintained by Dana Niculescu (repec@elsevier.com).

For further details log on website :
http://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeerenene/v_3a35_3ay_3a2010_3ai_3a3_3ap_3a614-618.htm