Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production

In production of biodiesel, vegetable oil that use as a feedstock of biodiesel has created long-term competition with the food supply chain as consequently in higher biodiesel prices. The raw materials cost constitutes 60 to 80 percent of the total cost of producing biodiesel. Therefore, using less...

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Main Author: Syed Amirul Haziq Bin Syed Isamri
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Published: 2023
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spelling my.uniten.dspace-213192023-05-04T21:34:07Z Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production Syed Amirul Haziq Bin Syed Isamri Biodiesel Continuous Flow Glycerolysis In production of biodiesel, vegetable oil that use as a feedstock of biodiesel has created long-term competition with the food supply chain as consequently in higher biodiesel prices. The raw materials cost constitutes 60 to 80 percent of the total cost of producing biodiesel. Therefore, using less expensive feedstocks that do not clash with food supply is a good way to reduce the production cost of biodiesel. Hence, this research will focus on waste cooking oil (WCO) as a raw material option for biodiesel production. However, these feedstocks have a high content of free fatty acids that hindering alkali catalyst reaction. Researchers have stated that alkali catalyst reaction can only tolerate free fatty acid (FFA) content in the feedstock up to 1-3% without adversely affecting the process. The FFA content in WCO usually 4-5% which is not suitable for alkali catalyst reaction. Therefore, pre-treatment of non-edible oils to lower the FFA in feedstock for alkali catalyzed transesterification is inevitable. Glycerolysis is one of pre-treatment process which can transform the FFA back to its respective glyceride molecule. There were few works have been reported on glycerolysis reaction with various non-edible oils with and without presence of catalyst. Most of them have reported, glycerolysis reaction has successfully reduced the FFA non-edible oils below 3% which is favorable for alkali catalyst transesterification. Nonetheless, the glycerolysis process is that it continues by slow reaction, occurring at a high temperature and being constrained by equilibrium, having two liquid phases in which the solubility of glycerol in triglyceride is rather restricted. Therefore, in this work a novel approach has been proposed which is utilizing microwave energy instead of conventional heating to accelerate the glycerolysis reaction with lower reaction temperature and reduce the process duration. Besides that, this research also focuses on continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy rather than batch processes which are not ideal for industrial application. The results showed that the optimum condition achieve during experiment were molar ratio (oil to glycerol) of 1:3, microwave power of 440W, flow rate of 60rpm and without a presence of catalyst. The required time to achieve 96.5% of FFA reduction was about 10 minutes. Therefore, it was concluded that the lowest FFA value of WCO can be possibly obtain through this continuous glycerolysis method in a short time. 2023-05-03T16:33:50Z 2023-05-03T16:33:50Z 2020-02 https://irepository.uniten.edu.my/handle/123456789/21319 application/pdf
institution Universiti Tenaga Nasional
building UNITEN Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Tenaga Nasional
content_source UNITEN Institutional Repository
url_provider http://dspace.uniten.edu.my/
topic Biodiesel
Continuous Flow
Glycerolysis
spellingShingle Biodiesel
Continuous Flow
Glycerolysis
Syed Amirul Haziq Bin Syed Isamri
Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
description In production of biodiesel, vegetable oil that use as a feedstock of biodiesel has created long-term competition with the food supply chain as consequently in higher biodiesel prices. The raw materials cost constitutes 60 to 80 percent of the total cost of producing biodiesel. Therefore, using less expensive feedstocks that do not clash with food supply is a good way to reduce the production cost of biodiesel. Hence, this research will focus on waste cooking oil (WCO) as a raw material option for biodiesel production. However, these feedstocks have a high content of free fatty acids that hindering alkali catalyst reaction. Researchers have stated that alkali catalyst reaction can only tolerate free fatty acid (FFA) content in the feedstock up to 1-3% without adversely affecting the process. The FFA content in WCO usually 4-5% which is not suitable for alkali catalyst reaction. Therefore, pre-treatment of non-edible oils to lower the FFA in feedstock for alkali catalyzed transesterification is inevitable. Glycerolysis is one of pre-treatment process which can transform the FFA back to its respective glyceride molecule. There were few works have been reported on glycerolysis reaction with various non-edible oils with and without presence of catalyst. Most of them have reported, glycerolysis reaction has successfully reduced the FFA non-edible oils below 3% which is favorable for alkali catalyst transesterification. Nonetheless, the glycerolysis process is that it continues by slow reaction, occurring at a high temperature and being constrained by equilibrium, having two liquid phases in which the solubility of glycerol in triglyceride is rather restricted. Therefore, in this work a novel approach has been proposed which is utilizing microwave energy instead of conventional heating to accelerate the glycerolysis reaction with lower reaction temperature and reduce the process duration. Besides that, this research also focuses on continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy rather than batch processes which are not ideal for industrial application. The results showed that the optimum condition achieve during experiment were molar ratio (oil to glycerol) of 1:3, microwave power of 440W, flow rate of 60rpm and without a presence of catalyst. The required time to achieve 96.5% of FFA reduction was about 10 minutes. Therefore, it was concluded that the lowest FFA value of WCO can be possibly obtain through this continuous glycerolysis method in a short time.
format
author Syed Amirul Haziq Bin Syed Isamri
author_facet Syed Amirul Haziq Bin Syed Isamri
author_sort Syed Amirul Haziq Bin Syed Isamri
title Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
title_short Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
title_full Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
title_fullStr Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
title_full_unstemmed Continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
title_sort continuous glycerolysis reaction using microwave energy for high fatty acids feedstock for biodiesel production
publishDate 2023
_version_ 1806426295794401280
score 13.211869