Selective Removal of Saturated Fatty Acid Methyl Ester from Biodiesel Fuel by Hot Water Treatment

Katsuki Kusakabe; Masato Ezaki; Masumi Nishida

Authors

Katsuki Kusakabe Department of Nanoscience, Sojo University, 4-22-1 Ikeda, Nishi-ku, Kumamoto 860-8691, Japan Author
Masato Ezaki Department of Nanoscience, Sojo University, 4-22-1 Ikeda, Nishi-ku, Kumamoto 860-8691, Japan Author
Masumi Nishida Nishida Shoun Corporation, 3-3-23, Midorigahama, Singuu, Fukuoka 811-0119, Japan Author

Keywords:

Biodiesel, used oil, methanol, potassium hydroxide, two step

Abstract

The present study investigated the selective removal of saturated fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from biodiesel fuel by water washing. Complete transesterification of palm oil was achieved at 60 oC for 1 hour in the presence of a KOH catalyst. Water washing treatment of the synthesized crude biodiesel was carried out at 30-70 oC to remove saturated FAME selectively. When the ratio of saturated FAME to unsaturated FAME in the palm oil based biodiesel became the minimum value at the washing temperature of 50 oC, the minimum temperature of the cloud point was 6 oC.