Continuous Production of Biodiesel From Waste Cooking Oil by a Two-Step Process With Microtube Reactors

Hitomi Miyazaki; Masato Ezaki; Katsuki Kusakabe; Guoqing Guan; Yoshimitsu Uemura

Authors

Hitomi Miyazaki 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
Katsuki Kusakabe Department of Nanoscience, Sojo University, 4-22-1 Ikeda, Nishi-ku, Kumamoto 860-8691, Japan Author
Guoqing Guan North Japan Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (NJRISE), Hirosaki University, 2-1-3, Matsubara, Aomori 030-0813, Japan Translator
Yoshimitsu Uemura Center for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak 31750, Malaysia Author

Keywords:

Transesteri cation, Esteri cation, Waste Cooking Oil, Triolein, Palmitic Acid

Abstract

In order to produce biodiesel continuously from waste cooking oil (WCO), a two-step process with microtube reactors (MRs) was developed. Esteri cation of fatty acid using acid catalyst proceeded in the rst MR and then, the acid methanol phase as well as produced water was continuously separated from the oil phase in a simple separation cell, and nally, the oil phase owed into the second MR for the transesteri cation of the remained triglyceride using KOH catalyst. It is found that the acidic methanol phase can be separated from the oil phase using a simple separation cell located downstream of the rst MR in a short period. FAME yield reached 99.3 % at a total residence time of 46.2 min with a reaction temperature of 333 K, when WCO containing 14 mol% of free fatty acid was converted in the two-step reaction system composed of a rst MR with 5000 mm length and a second MR with 1000 mm length.