##manager.scheduler.building##: Institute of Energy & Environmental Engineering
##manager.scheduler.room##: Symposium 4. Hydrogen Energy and Catalysis:https://meet.google.com/rku-pcuo-buk
Date: 2020-12-22 02:45 PM – 03:00 PM
Last modified: 2020-12-21
Abstract
Sustainability and the price of feedstock are the key parameters governing the economics of biodiesel production. Higher price of biodiesel is the major obstacle in its commercialization. The higher price of biodiesel is attributed to the choice of feedstock and inherent slow nature of acid catalyzed esterification, for reduction of free fatty acid, for subsequent alkaline transesterification. Chicken fats, otherwise a waste and environmental nuisance, are an attractive feedstock for cleaner biodiesel production because of low cost and worldwide availability. Establishment of thermodynamic equilibrium in esterification reaction limits the overall conversion and reduces the rate of reaction. These are major challenges in commercialization of biodiesel. A new vapor (methanol bubble)-liquid contacting method has been proposed to analyze the hypothesis that bubble reactor can “push” the biodiesel production near completion. Simultaneous removal of water from the system would “pull” the equilibrium in the forward direction. Kinetic investigation shows that the reaction occurs, indeed, at the vapor-liquid interface and consequently yielding a higher conversion of 91% in 30 min -- significantly higher than any previously reported studies for CFO based biodiesel.