Esterification pretreatment of free fatty acid in biodiesel production, from laboratory to industry

摘要: In the US, biodiesel producers usually follow 19.8:1 methanol-to-FFA molar ratio for free fatty acid (FFA) esterification, as suggested by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) without optimization studies. this paper, both laboratory studies and industrial practices of esterification process were compared, an study a used vegetable oil with 5% FFA was conducted. The optimal conditions oil, i.e., 40:1, sulfuric usage 10%, fell out range 19.8:1. activation energy reaction is 20.7 kJ/mol at optimized condition 45.9 methanol to ratio. It found that worked well only within 15-25% while 15-35%. Outside these ranges, especially levels less than 15%, necessary. Regression models dosing have been utilized in two scale producing facilities successfully reduced level 0.5%. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.