Transesterification of Sunflower Oil in Microreactors

Abstract

AbstractKOH catalyzed transesterification of sunflower oil using methanol has been studied in different types of microreactors. All the microreactors consist of a serpentine microchannel etched in a glass chip but have different types of microfluidic junctions (dispersing devices). First microreactor consists of a T-type microfluidic junction. The second microreactor has a †-type microfluidic junction. The third microreactor uses a split and recombine micromixer to generate the dispersion. Effects of temperature, flow rate, and feed molar ratio on the conversion of triglyceride (TG) have been studied. In some cases, conversion of TG is not found to change monotonically with change in flow rate. An attempt has been made to explain this seemingly unusual trend, and the explanations are substantiated using the liquid–liquid two-phase flow patterns observed using a high-speed image acquisition system. The results from the experiments conducted in this study indicate that it is possible to get very high TG conversion (>90%) with residence time less than a minute.