CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF BIOFUEL FROM PALM OIL IN SUPERCRITICAL ETHYL ACETATE

Abstract

The objective of this study is to produce biofuel from palm oil in supercritical ethyl acetate (ETA) in continuous system and study the effects of reaction parameters. The non-catalytic interesterification of the reactants in continuous system to produce biofuel is complex to understand thermodynamic properties during extreme condition, particularly density of the mixture in the reactor. In the first part, the relation of temperature, pressure and global density of palm oil and ETA by isochoric technique with constant volume reactor were investigated to generate PVT diagrams. The discontinuity of slope of the isochoric line indicates the boundaries between the vapor-liquid phase and homogeneous regions for the reacting systems. These phase transition points can be estimated critical point of palm oil and ETA mixture at different compositions. The subsequent information is utilized for investigating biofuel production from palm oil in supercritical ETA using continuous tubular reactor. The density of the mixtures in this second part was estimated using the Peng–Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) process simulator, and the residence time was calculated. The optimum conditions required to obtain 90.9 wt% of total biofuel production of palm oil in supercritical ETA were 653 K and 16 MPa at the optimum mixture mass flow rate of 1.5 g/min with the activation energy by 50.06 kJ/mol in 593–653 K range. Furthermore, water addition to the supercritical mixture was also investigated to reuse a raw material of waste cooking oil for economic feasibility.