Abstract
In this study, trans-esterification of rice bran oil employing a heterogeneous catalyst like CaO has been conducted in a batch reactor with ethanol. The optimal set of various critical reaction parameters are found to be temperature of 70 °C, reactant molar ratio 9:1, agitation speed of 600 rpm, catalyst mount of 3 wt % to maximize the biodiesel yield. For the heterogeneous system possibly influenced by reaction and pore diffusion, the controlling regime has been found based on the experimental data and well established theoretical estimations. The kinetic model along with the relevant parameters viz., reaction order, rate constants and Arrhenius parameters have been estimated.
Highlights
Rapid industrialization and increasing population at a global level has led to a tremendous upswing in the energy utilization [1, 2]
There has been a growing impetus on the heterogeneous synthesis, identifying novel and effective catalysts and cost effective feedstock as the main hurdle in the commercialization of biodiesel production by transesterification reaction has been the high cost of raw materials which contributes to 70 % of total cost [9]
Various research studies have been reported on this topic like process standardization with reference to various critical parameters like nature of vegetable oil and alcohol, reactant mole ratio, nature and amount of catalyst, reaction time, agitation rate and temperature and employing different reaction conditions like microwave irradiation, ultrasonic assisted and supercritical conditions to maximize biodiesel yield and reaction rate [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]
Summary
Rapid industrialization and increasing population at a global level has led to a tremendous upswing in the energy utilization [1, 2]. The homogeneous catalysis route though relatively rapid and result in higher yields, is not recommended due to commercial reasons as it demands high quality crude oils and an expensive and toxic downstream processing due to undesired side reactions like saponification and hydrolysis occurring. Various research studies have been reported on this topic like process standardization with reference to various critical parameters like nature of vegetable oil and alcohol, reactant mole ratio, nature and amount of catalyst, reaction time, agitation rate and temperature and employing different reaction conditions like microwave irradiation, ultrasonic assisted and supercritical conditions to maximize biodiesel yield and reaction rate [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]
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