Optimization of biodiesel production of fatty acid esterification using ion exchange resins

Abstract

Due to energy crisis by depletion of fossil fuel and environmental concerns about air pollution caused by the combustion of fossil fuels, the search for alternative fuels has gained much attention. Biodiesel as a valuable alternative to petroleum-derived fuels is a renewable fuel of vegetal origin. Biodiesel is an oxygenated, renewable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly biofuel with similar flow and combustion properties and low emission profile. However, it is impractical to use refined edible oils to produce biodiesel due to its high cost and priority for food products, while waste oils with high free fatty acids (FFAs) can be considered as the raw materials. The esterification reaction of acid oils or fats can then be used both as biodiesel direct production (in the case of substrates with very high content of FFAs) and as pre-treatment step in the framework of a conventional transesterification process (for feedstock with moderate free acidity). In this study optimization of esterification process of free fatty acids (FFA) in waste cooking oil with methanol in the presence of ion exchange resin is carried out. The esterification reaction was investigated in a Batch laboratory scale and effects of catalyst amount, temperature were studied. The model is optimized in order to maximize conversion of fatty acid to Methyl ester (biodiesel). The optimal conditions achieved at reaction temperature of 120?C and 4.48 g catalyst loading. All programming was employed in Matlab environment.