Experimental study and simulation of ideal continuous reactors for the glyceryl oleates production via a homogeneous esterification reaction

Abstract

The esterification of glycerol with oleic acid for the production of glycerol oleates in the presence of methyl ester sulfonate acid as a homogeneous catalyst was studied. The study was carried out experimentally in a batch reactor with reaction time up to 360 minutes and temperature between 100 and 175 °C. The results showed that the yield of the glycerol oleates increased with increasing reaction time and temperature, reaching the highest yield of 82.61%. The kinetic of the glycerol oleates yield was examined, and the calculations showed that the reaction follows a third-order kinetic model, and the activation energy and frequency factor were determined. The obtained reaction kinetics data were invested in modeling and simulating the esterification reaction of glycerol with oleic acid in ideal mixed and plug flow reactors. The simulation results demonstrated that the effect of the temperature on the yield of glycerol oleates in the mixed flow reactor is less than that of the plug flow reactor. The results also indicated that the mixed flow reactor is suitable when the required glycerol oleates yield is less than 63%, while the plug flow reactor is suitable for higher yield values.