Mahdi Hashemzadeh Gargari; Seyed Mojtaba Sadrameli; mohammad taherkhani
Abstract
Both the continuous and batch transesterification of linseed oil were examined in order to maximize the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) yield. The continuous process was conducted in a packed bed reactor using calcium oxide as a heterogeneous catalyst. In addition, the impact of two variables, namely ...
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Both the continuous and batch transesterification of linseed oil were examined in order to maximize the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) yield. The continuous process was conducted in a packed bed reactor using calcium oxide as a heterogeneous catalyst. In addition, the impact of two variables, namely the molar ratio of methanol to oil and the flow rate (ml/min), on the FAME yield were studied. Likewise, for the batch process, the reaction was carried out in a CSTR reactor using KOH as a homogeneous catalyst. Moreover, the influence of the molar ratio of methanol to oil and of catalyst concentration (wt. %) on the FAME yield was investigated. For both the batch and continuous process, FAME yield was optimized by using the Design Expert (Ver. 7.0.0) software. The optimum conditions for the continuous method were reported as follows: a molar ratio of methanol to oil of 11.75:1, a flow rate of 1.07 ml/min, and a temperature of 50oC. Under the optimum conditions, a FAME yield of 94.2423% was achieved. For the batch process, a FAME yield of 95.0672% was reached under the optimum conditions of a molar ratio of methanol to oil of 9.12:1, a catalyst concentration of 1.52 wt. %, a temperature of 40oC, an agitation rate of 650 rpm, and a reaction time of 60 minutes.
Mohammad Kord; Seyed Mojtaba Sadrameli; Barat Ghobadian
Abstract
The purpose of this research work was to investigate the optimum operating conditions for biodiesel production from castor oil using a microwave. The Box–Behnken design of experiment was carried out using the Design Expert 7. A response surface methodology (RSM) was used to analyze the influence ...
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The purpose of this research work was to investigate the optimum operating conditions for biodiesel production from castor oil using a microwave. The Box–Behnken design of experiment was carried out using the Design Expert 7. A response surface methodology (RSM) was used to analyze the influence of the process variables (molar ratio of methanol to castor oil, catalyst concentration, reaction time, and microwave power) on the biodiesel yield. Optimizing biodiesel production reaction based on the yield of reaction by means of response surface method showed that 1.44 wt.% of catalyst concentration, 7.12:1 molar ratio of alcohol to oil, microwave power of 500 W and 120 seconds of reaction time produces the best results for maximizing the conversion percent. Finally, Biodiesel samples were analyzed with Gas Chromatography (GC) method for determination of fatty acid methyl ester yield. The yield of reaction obtained was 92.15% with above operating conditions and temperature of output flow was 58 oC.
