Continuous production of soybean biodiesel with compressed ethanol in a microtube reactor |
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Authors: | Camila da Silva Fernanda de Castilhos J Vladimir Oliveira |
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Affiliation: | a Department of Technology, Maringá State University, (UEM), CEP: 87506-370, Umuarama, Brazil b Department of Chemical Engineering, Maringa State University, (UEM). Av. Colombo 5790, Maringa, PR, 87020-900, Brazil c Department of Chemical Engineering, Paraná Federal University (UFPR), Polytechnic Center (DTQ/ST/UFPR), Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, PR, 82530-990, Brazil d Department of Food Engineering, URI, Campus de Erechim, Av. Sete de Setembro, 1621, Erechim, RS, 99700-000, Brazil |
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Abstract: | This work investigates the production of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) from the transesterification of soybean oil in supercritical ethanol in a continuous catalyst-free process. Experiments were performed in a microtube reactor in the temperature range of 523 K to 598 K, from 10 MPa to 20 MPa, varying the oil to ethanol molar ratio from 1:10 to 1:40, and evaluating the effects of addition of carbon dioxide as co-solvent. Results showed that ethyl esters yield obtained in the microtube reactor (inner diameter 0.76 mm) were higher than those obtained in a tubular reactor (inner diameter 3.2 mm) possibly due to improved mass-transfer conditions attained inside the microtube reactor. Non-negligible reaction yields (70 wt.%) were achieved along with low total decomposition of fatty acids (< 5.0 wt.%). It is shown that the use of carbon dioxide as co-solvent in the proposed microtube reactor did not significantly affect the ethyl esters yield within the experimental variable ranges investigated. |
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Keywords: | Supercritical biodiesel Ethyl esters Continuous process Catalyst-free process |
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