Kinetics of the sunflower oil ethanolysis using CaO as catalyst

Abstract

The ethanolysis of sunflower oil catalyzed by calcium oxide was studied in wider ranges of the reaction conditions: temperature 65-75°C, ethanol-to-oil molar ratio 6:1-18:1 and catalyst loading 10-20% in order to determine the reaction kinetics. The proposed kinetic model of the sunflower oil ethanolysis included the changing and first-order reaction mechanism with respect to triacylglycerols and fatty acid ethyl esters. The kinetic parameters were determined and correlated with the process variables. The Arrhenius equation could be applied to the reaction rate constant with the activation energy of 94.0 kJ/mol. The proposed kinetic model showed a good agreement with the experimental data with the mean relative percentage deviation of ±13% (based on 256 data points). [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 45001]

Keywords

• biodiesel
• ethanolysis
• calcium oxide
• kinetic modeling
• sunflower oil