title: Comprehensive kinetic studies of acidic oil continuous esterification by cation-exchange resin in fixed bed reactors.
abstract: Biodiesel produced by esterification from molar ratio of methanol to free fatty acid (FFA) as 25:1 in presence of triglyceride was carried out with cation-exchange resin as a heterogeneous catalyst in three different scales of fixed bed reactors from minireactor (6.8 mm × 110 mm) to pilot scale reactor (70 mm × 1260 mm) at 338 K. The kinetic study of esterification was undertaken in terms of pseudo-homogeneous mechanism and performed as a first order reaction with elimination of the solid-liquid internal and external mass transfer resistances. Moreover, a kinetic model of FFA esterification was developed to illustrate the relationship between the FFA conversion and the catalyst bed height of fixed bed reactor. The model was also suitable for various resins in fixed bed reactor. The theoretical predictions were in agreement with the experimental data with root mean square (RMS) errors <10.
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Hollow Fiber Membrane Materials and Processes, School of Material and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin 300160, PR China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Yaohui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Yanbiao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Aoran
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Benqiao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Jianxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002411:Cation Exchange Resins; D004951:Esterification; D007700:Kinetics; D010865:Pilot Projects
chemical_list: D002411:Cation Exchange Resins