Biodiesel preparation in a batch emulsification reactor

✍ Scribed by Martin Hájek; František Skopal; Jiří Kwiecien

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 256 KB
• Volume: 111
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1438-7697
• DOI: 10.1002/ejlt.200900012

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The transesterification of vegetable oils (rapeseed oil was used here) by low molecular weight alcohol is the most used method of biodiesel production. Since the reaction proceeds at the alcohol‐oil interface, it is necessary to create a large interphase surface area using a special emulsifying attachment. We studied how the conditions (e.g., independent variables: molar ratio alcohol to oil, amount of catalyst used, KOH, time and temperature of reaction, intensity of stirring, revolution of emulsifying attachment) affected the quality and quantity (dependent variables) of the ester phase, i.e., the biodiesel. The amount of used catalyst was calculated with respect to the content of free fatty acid in the oil. The statistical system of Plackett‐Burman was used for experiment planning. The relationship between independent and dependent variables was determined and described by multidimensional linear regression. Various statistical tests (principal component analysis, correlation matrix) were also performed.