Production of Biodiesel
by Esterification of Stearic
Acid over Aminophosphonic Acid Resin D418
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Abstract
Biodiesel production has become a very intense research
field because
of its environmental benefits and the growing interest in finding
new resources and alternatives for conventional fuels. In the present
work, biodiesel production from the esterification of the free fatty
acid stearic acid with ethanol over aminophosphonic acid resin D418
was studied. The effects of experimental factors such as the amount
of D418, reaction temperature, and molar ratio of ethanol to stearic
acid on the conversion ratio were evaluated. Process optimization
using response surface methodology (RSM) was performed, and the interactions
between the operating variables were elucidated. The optimum values
for maximum esterification percentage were obtained by using a Box–Behnken
center-united design with a minimum of experimental work. Moreover,
the kinetics of the esterification catalyzed by D418 was studied,
and the pseudohomogeneous (PH) model was used to simulate the experimental
data