Electrocoagulation with AC Electrical Current at Low Voltage for Separation of Crude Glycerol from Biodiesel Product Mixture

Abstract

Electrocoagulation with AC electrical current at low voltage was implemented to remove crude glycerol from biodiesel which was produced via transesterification reaction of refined palm oil (RPO) as feedstock with methanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide derivative-catalyst at 60°C for 2 hr using the conventional heating in the water bath. Effects of point-to-point electrode configuration, electrode materials, inter-electrode distances, optimized AC low voltages, molar ratios of glycerol and biodiesel product mixture on the separation time and the separation efficiency were studied. Electrocoagulation process with applied AC at 96 V and using Al point-to-point electrodes at the inter-electrode distance of 0.1 cm could efficiently remove free glycerol more than the gravitation settling for the separation time of 120 s. The separation efficiency was over 99.99%. Even though the clear interface between biodiesel and glycerol was firstly observed after applying the electrocoagulation for 30 s, the separation time had to proceed for additional 90 s to eliminate unreacted catalyst. The methyl ester content of 98.56±0.47 wt% was obtained after purification with 2 times of water-washing. This process can be achieved by shortening the separation time and could significantly reduce the water consumption during the purification process.