Kinetic study of the direct esterification of oleic acid with ethanol in the presence of triglycerides

J.M. MARCHETTI; M.N. PEDERNERA; N.S. SCHBIB; A.F. ERRAZU

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Congreso; XXII Congreso Interamericano de Ingeniería Química, V Congreso Argentino de Ingeniería Química; 2006

In this work the kinetics of the esterification reaction of acid sunflower oils with ethanol has been studied using sulfuric acid as a homogeneous catalyst. The reaction was evaluated by performing batch runs at different operating conditions such as reaction temperature, amount of catalyst, molar ratio alcohol/oil and different initial amount of free fatty acid in the presence of triglycerides to simulate acid oils. The acid oils are considered the newest alternative raw material in the biodiesel production. For this kinetic study a mechanism based in rate controlling step theory has been proposed. The experimental data obtained in this study have been successfully applied to obtain the kinetic parameters for the reaction. A good agreement between the proposed model and the experimental values was obtained