Abstract
The search for alternatives to fossil fuels has been widely covered, especially in the past two decades. Thus, the role of biodiesel has been important, and its implementation in biorefineries seems feasible due to the sustainability of the process. This way, the knowledge of kinetics is vital to design industrial facilities and to compare the efficiency of catalysts (both typical and innovative ones) during transesterification or other similar processes taking place in a biorefinery, such as biolubricant production through transesterification with superior alcohols. In this work, a thorough kinetic study of homogeneous catalysts (base catalysts, such as KOH, NaOH or CH3OK, and acid catalysts (H2SO4, H3PO4 and p-toluenesulfonic acid, CH3C6H4SO3H)) applied to the transesterification of soybean oil was carried out to provide extensive kinetic data about this process. As a conclusion, a pseudo-first-order reaction mechanism was applied in all cases, with activation energies of 65.5–66 and 92.3 kJ·mol−1 for KOH and CH3C6H4SO3H, respectively, proving the higher activation energy for acid catalysis compared to base catalysis.
Highlights
The search for alternatives to petroleum products has been increasingly important, supported by policies, such as the Sustainable Development
Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME or FAEE) production from different sources is a recurring process to produce biodiesel, directly used in Diesel engines if this biofuel complies with some quality parameters [3]
The use of some vegetable oils, such as rapeseed or soybean, has been important, including many studies whose main conclusion was the high quality of the biodiesel produced, complying with most of the requirements included in standards [6,7,8]
Summary
The search for alternatives to petroleum products has been increasingly important, supported by policies (both national and global), such as the Sustainable Development. Biodiesel production can play a really important role as an alternative to Diesel, implying many advantages, such as contribution to zero-net. This way, the use of a wide variety of vegetable oils (among other raw materials or wastes) could make the implementation of this technology feasible regardless of the climate or agronomic conditions. Even though biodiesel production and application has been widely studied in the literature, including its catalysis (both homogeneous and heterogeneous), the experimental conditions of research works are different even for the same kind of oil [12,13], with many factors, such as temperature, methanol:oil ratio, the fatty acid composition of the raw material, playing an important role during transesterification [14,15]. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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