Title:
Production of Ethyl Esters by a Two-Stage Transesterification
Author(s):
Karonis, D., Anastopoulos, G., Chilari, D.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
The depletion of fossil reserves which is accompanied by environmental degradation provokes the study of biodiesel production. At present, biodiesel has gained attention as an alternative fuel, due to its characteristics: high biodegrability, renewability, also, the reduced regulated and unregulated emissions from the biodiesel use are worthy highlighting. The wide technique produced is by means of transesterification. The already commercial biodiesel is dependent on methanol utilization, something which is remarkably controversial, taking into consideration the sustainable character of biodiesel. Therefore, the current work investigates the transesterification of refined oils by ethanol under a homogeneous basic catalyst such as CH3ONa in a two-stage process. The physicochemical properties of the resulting products were evaluated in accordance with the stipulated requirements in European norm EN14214. Throughout the set of experiments, the operating variables tested were the range of molar ratios of ethanol to oil (6:1-15:1) under 0,7% CH3ONa in different edible oils. The other operation parameters of experiments in two steps treatment such as reaction temperature and time, steering speed were fixed, so as to assess the impact of ethanol molar ratios on triglycerides conversion to biodiesel through ethanolysis in different oils. In conclusion, the results in the two-stage process were satisfactory as it was disclosed by an adequate ester yield at optimum conditions. Furthermore, the more disputable issue of ethanol compared to methanol is associated with the better ethanol solubility in oil phase. That is advantageous for the reactants mixing, skipping mass transfer limitations. On the other side, during the recuperation and separation of ethyl esters, the formation of unwanted soaps and emulsions is unavoidable and unfortunately, they break down hardly compared to methanolysis case, decreasing the ethyl ester purity. Throughout the present multistage processing, these undesirable phenomena were less intensive compared to the one-step, facilitating the fatty acid ethyl ester production (FAEE) production. That observation is of considerable interest easing the production of ethyl esters and taking simultaneously advantage from both ethanol environmental benignity and from methanol independency. So, ethyl esters may be a future substitution fuel as methylesters already do, contributing considerably to air quality, fulfilling eco-friendly concerns.
Keywords:
ethanol, transesterification, conversion
Topic:
R&D on Processes for Solid, Liquid and Gaseous Fuels from Biomass
Subtopic:
Oil-based biofuels
Event:
21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
3CV.1.42
Pages:
1502 - 1508
ISBN:
978-88-89407-53-0
Paper DOI:
10.5071/21stEUBCE2013-3CV.1.42
Price:
FREE
