Biodiesel production from palm oil in a fixed-bed-reactor with calcium methoxide catalyst

Abstract

In  this  research,  the  behavior  of  calcium  methoxide  as  catalyst  for  the  production  of  biodiesel  from  palm  oil in a continuous system was studied. Initially, operating conditions such as CaO activation temperature (25°C), reaction temperature (60°C) and molar ratio methanol-oil (10)were established for a batch reactor. Then, the schematic diagram of the experimental setup and its implementation were described for a packed-bed laboratory scale reactor with continuous flow; for this system, yields of methyl esters of 20% with a residence time of 60 min were obtained. The use of co-solvent such as tert-Bbutanol and ethyl acetate in the continuous  reaction  system  was  also  investigated,  aiming  to  eliminate  mass  transfer  artifacts  between  the  phases  and  eventually  increasing  yields  to  methyl  esters.  The  use  of  ethyl  acetate  as  co-solvent  increased  methyl esters yields up to 31 %.