Kinetics of base‐catalyzed transesterification of triglycerides from Pongamia oil

Abstract

The kinetics of transesterification of Pongamia oil using methanol at 60°C were studied. The forward as well as the reverse rate constants of all three steps involved in the transesterification of Pongamia oil are reported for the first time. Among the forward rate constants, the one governing the conversion of TG to DG was the highest and the one for DG to MG was the lowest. A distinct feature of the present work is the direct estimation of the equilibrium constants of all three steps by measuring the concentrations of TG, DG, and MG at very long reaction times. This reduced the number of parameters to be determined from the kinetic data by one-half, thereby leading to more accurate estimation of the rate constants. The equilibrium constant of the final step involving the conversion of MG to methyl ester and glycerol was at least an order of magnitude greater than that of the first two reaction steps. A detailed comparison was made with kinetic parameters reported in literature. The trend in the relative magnitudes of the rate constants appears to be unique to Pongamia oil.

Effect of bio-ethanol on the performance and emission of a biodiesel fueled compression ignition engine

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Correlation between the chemical structure of biodiesel and its physical properties

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A Novel Method for Monitoring the Transesterification Reaction of Oil in Biodiesel Production by Estimation of Glycerol

“…Although this method is faster and simpler than chromatographic methods, the commercially available free glycerol kit is expensive for routine analysis. As part of an ongoing project in our laboratory on biodiesel from non-edible local oils [5,24,25], herein we report an efficient and novel method for monitoring transesterification and assessing biodiesel production by the estimation of glycerol.…”