Enhancement of the jojobyl alcohols and biodiesel production using a renewable catalyst in a pressurized reactor

Abstract

In this paper, the study of the methanolysis of Jojoba oil using CaO derived from mussel shells in a Parr reactor has been conducted through the use of two different mathematical tools: Surface Response Methodology and kinetic modeling. First of all, the factorial design of experiments allowed to determine the influence of the three chosen variables in the process. The three variables studied are the reaction temperature, the methanol:Jojoba oil ratio and the catalyst percent. The variables which have the higher positive effect on the methanolysis of Jojoba oil, in a pressurized environment, are the methanol:oil ratio and the temperature whereas the catalyst percent has a slight negative impact on the process, within the experimental limits. The reaction time was reduced from 10 to 5h and the Jojoba oil conversion reached a maximum of 96.3% when the Parr reactor reaches 10 bars approximately; which supposes a great advance regarding other studies conducted at atmospheric pressure. Finally, a kinetic model, which includes the assumption for mass transfer limitations on the process, was obtained using the same variables as the design of experiments and it fits the experiments accurately.