Production of ethyl ester from crude palm oil by two-step reaction using continuous microwave system

The esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) in vegetable oils with alcohol using an acid catalyst is a promising methodto convert FFA into valuable ester and obtain a FFA-free oil that can be further transesterified using alkali bases. In thiswork, the direct esterification reaction of FFA in crude palm oil to ethyl ester by continuous microwave was studied and theeffects of the main variables involved in the process, amount of catalyst, reaction time and the molar ratio oil/ alcohol, wereanalyzed. The optimum condition for the continuous esterification process was carried out with a molar ratio of oil to ethanol1:6, using 1.25%wt of H2SO4/oil as a catalyst, microwave power of 78 W and a reaction time 90 min. This esterification processshows that the amount of FFA was reduced from 7.5%wt to values around 1.4 %wt. Similar results were obtained followingconventional heating at 70°C, but only after a reaction time of 240 min. The esterified crude palm oil is suitable to perform thetransesterification process. Transesterification of the esterified palm oil has been accomplished with a molar ratio of oil toethanol of 1:8.5, 2.5%wt of KOH as a catalyst, a microwave power of 78 W, and a reaction time of 7 min. In addition, theproblem of glycerin separation was solved by mixing 10%wt of pure glycerin into the ethyl ester to induce the glycerin fromthe reaction to separated. This two-step esterification and transesterification process provided a yield of 78%wt with anester content of 97.4%wt. The final ethyl ester product met with the specifications stipulated by ASTM D6751-02

เอทิลเอสเตอร์จากน้ำมันปาล์มดิบ โดยใช้กระบวนการ 2 ขั้นตอนด้วยไมโครเวฟแบบต่อเนื่อง

Thesis (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering)--Prince of Songkla University, 201

Development of continuous deglycerolisation reactor for ethyl ester production

In this work, the development of continuous deglycerolisation (CD) reactor for ethyl ester production was investigated to improve the ethyl ester conversion. The device to assist separation of glycerol, in the CD unit, integrates transesterification (mixing zone) and separation (settling zone) into one unit. For reversible transesterification, removing glycerol during reaction can drive the equilibrium to the product side in order to achieve high conversion. Two models of device to assist separation of glycerol have been carried out to investigate the suitable conditions for ethyl ester production. Results showed that the fin-type model could separate higher amount of glycerol from the reaction system in order to achieve high transesterification conversion. The suitable conditions found in this study were: molar ratio of oil to ethanol of 1:5, KOCH3 concentration of 1.6 %wt. retention time of 15 min and reaction temperature of 70°C. At these conditions, ethyl ester’s purity and yield were 97.3%wt. and 92.0%wt., respectively. In addition, the fuel properties of the final ethyl ester product met the biodiesel standard for methyl ester which specified by Department of Energy Business

Effect of Microwave Pretreatment on Extraction Yield and Quality of Catfish Oil in Northern Thailand

The effect of microwave pretreatment of catfish processing waste on oil recovery and quality was investigated. Fish oil was extracted using the enzymatic hydrolysis using alcalase enzyme after the microwave pretreatment. The effect of microwave power and microwave pretreatment times was evaluated. The results revealed that a highest yield of 9.25% when catfish waste was treated at 110 W for 60 s. This condition was found as the most appropriate condition of microwave pretreatment since it decreased the extraction time from 150 min to up to 30 min. Analysis of oil quality indices (e.g. acid value, p-anisidine value, peroxide value) extracted by microwave pretreatment and non-pretreatment indicated that catfish oil from both processes has comparatively similar fatty acids composition. In addition, catfish oil was extracted by microwave pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis had lower lipid oxidation compared to several standards