An Initial Reaction Rate Study of the Esterification of Fatty Acids

J. M. MARCHETTI

Congreso; XV Latin American Congress and Exhibition on Fats and Oils.; 2013

A study on the initial reaction rate and the final conversion of the direct esterification of fatty acid, with and without the presence of triglycerides, using sulfuric acid as catalyst under different operations conditions has been done. The interest was focused over the variation of the reaction temperature, the molar ratio of alcohol/fatty acid, the initial amount of fatty acid in the oil mixture and the amount of catalyst employed. Sulfuric acid was used as catalyst, an ideal mix of oleic acid and sunflower refine oil was employed and anhydrous ethanol was utilized instead of methanol since it is less toxic and safer to handle. In this work, it is corroborated that in the reaction of esterification of fatty acid there is an optimal amount of the molar ratio of alcohol to fatty acid to be used, where the final conversion is high, but with a good initial reaction rate. For this theoretical study, only one parameter was required to be adjusted and the result shows a good agreement between the model and the experimental data.