A New Approach for Synthesizing Fatty Acid Esters from Linoleic-Type Vegetable Oil

Abstract

Countries around the world recognize the numerous social, economic and environmental advantages of promoting liquid biofuels. They invest in its development and introduce tax incentives for its manufacture and tariffs of production regulation. In most studies, the process of synthesizing fatty acid esters takes a long time from 1 to 8 h. In this work, the synthesis of fatty acid esters was carried out in the range of volumetric ratios of ethanol to linoleic type oil in order to increase the kinetics of the process. The main parameters of the synthesis were studied by use of magnetic stirred tank reactors in a parallel reactor system, H.E.L. The synthesis was carried out in the presence of a homogeneous alkaline catalyst. The volumetric ratio of ethanol to oil was maintained at 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1 and 5:1. The amount of catalyst added to the reaction mixture ranged from 0.25 to 2.5% by the weight of the reaction alcohol. The dryness of ethanol varied from 91 to 99%. Effective process conditions have been established to reduce the reaction time from 2.5 h to 5 min while maintaining a high degree of conversion. The results obtained during the study suggest the possibility of using a continuous reactor to produce fatty acid esters from linoleic raw materials containing up to 16% of free fatty acids. This also means the possibility of using second generation biofuel feedstock.

The Physicochemical Basis for the Production of Rapeseed Oil Fatty Acid Esters in a Plug Flow Reactor

“…In previous work, a change in the technological parameters of the transesterification process was carried out using a perfect mixing reactor. For this purpose, the molar ratio of oil to alcohol was increased, leading to excess ethanol [82]. Based on the results of the previous work, an assumption was made that it is possible to realize a plug flow reactor operating under optimal conditions without resorting to reducing the channel cross-section to the size of a microreactor.…”

“…For the plug flow reactor, the fundamental value in the design issue is the residence time of the reaction mixture in the reactor. Tests of FAEE synthesis in a plug flow reactor have shown that the maximum conversion of feedstock can be achieved in 5 min [82]. The most difficult task in the work on the PFR unit was to match this value with the pump capacity, length, and cross-section of the reactor.…”

Fluid-Loss Control Technology: From Laboratory to Well Field

“…Thus, active research and development of existing and promising reverse emulsions for use as process fluids should play an important role in the introduction of new technologies [23].…”