Abstract
This paper presents an acid pre-treatment process and a kinetic study for the esterification reaction of Oleum papaveris seminis oil with methanol in the presence of amberlite 120 as a solid catalyst to convert the oil into methyl esters. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the reaction parameters, i.e. reaction time, percentage of the catalyst and volume ratio of methanol to oil. The results revealed that 0.87% w/w of catalyst concentration and 44.70% v/v of methanol to oil ratio provided final free fatty acid (FFA) contents of 0.60% w/w at 102.40 min of reaction time. It proved that the contribution of Amberlite 120 in the esterification of FFA was highly significant. The kinetics of the esterification in Oleum papaveris seminis oil with methanol in the presence of the amberlite 120 catalyst were also investigated to establish the reaction rate constant (k), reaction order, and activation energy. The study was performed under the optimized parameters at three reaction temperatures (50, 55, and 60 oC). The value of k was in the range of 0.013 to 0.027 min-1. The first-order kinetics’ model was suitable for this irreversible FFA esterification with the activation energy of about 60.9 KJ·mol-1.
Highlights
The shortage of petroleum reserves and other environmental issues has encouraged governments and researchers to look for alternative sources of fuel
The feedstock used in this study was crude Oleum papaveris seminis oil with an initial free fatty acid (FFA) content of (10.63%)
The esterification of FFA in Oleum papaveris seminis oil using pure amberlite 120 took a longer time to reduce FFA to less than 1.0% w/w
Summary
The shortage of petroleum reserves and other environmental issues has encouraged governments and researchers to look for alternative sources of fuel. The growth of the biofuel industry has faded due to economic crises, which have culminated in significant decreases in fossil fuel prices (Mohr et al, 2015). It has been the reverse for prices of food crops especially soy and corn, which are the major contributors to biodiesel production. Their prices have increased (Radijiyev et al, 2015). In order to avoid a food versus fuel controversy, there is an ultimate need for exploration of non-edible resources and this will lead to minimizing the cost factor for biodiesel production (Wu et al, 2014). Exploring ways to minimize the high cost of biodiesel production is of much interest in today’s biodiesel research
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