Synthesis Of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (Fame) From Palm Oil Via Non-Catalytic Supercritical Fluid Reaction
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Date
2011-06
Authors
Tan, Kok Tat
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Palm oil is abundantly available in Malaysia and has been shown to be a promising feedstock in fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) or biodiesel production compared to other vegetable oils. In the present study, palm oil was utilized as the source of triglycerides in supercritical fluid reactions. The solvents that were investigated in this study were methanol, methyl acetate and dimethyl carbonate. An experimental system was successfully designed and fabricated for supercritical fluid (SCF) reaction. The non-catalytic SCF reactions were carried out with reaction temperature varying from 300°C to 400°C, molar ratio of solvent to oil from 10 to 50 mol/mol and reaction time of 5 to 60 minutes. Statistical analysis method of design of experiment (DOE) was employed to investigate the effects of temperature, reaction time and molar ratio of solvent to oil on the yield of biodiesel. The optimum operating conditions for the 3 supercritical fluid reactions were determined by using response surface methodology (RSM) in order to find the optimum yields of biodiesel.
It was found that the 3 SCF reactions have their own characteristics. For instance, supercritical methanol (SCM) reaction showed superior performance compared to conventional catalytic reaction in terms of reaction time and yield. This non-catalytic reaction only required 16 minutes of reaction time and 372°C reaction temperature to achieve high yield of approximately 82%. On the other hand, supercritical methyl acetate (SCMA) reaction required longer reaction time (59 minutes) and higher reaction temperature (399°C) to accomplish 98% yield of biodiesel mixture comprising of FAME and triacetin. It was shown that the presence
of triacetin did not cause adverse effect on the properties of biodiesel but instead led to improvement in cold flow properties such as pour point and cloud point. For supercritical dimethyl carbonate (SCDMC) reaction, only milder operating conditions (380°C of reaction temperature and 30 minutes of reaction time) were necessary to achieve a high yield more than 91%. Besides, the formation of glycerol carbonate (GC) as co-product in the reaction leads to more economical processing costs of biodiesel.
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Keywords
Palm oil was utilized as the source of , triglycerides in supercritical fluid reactions