Study of the Production of Ethyl Esters of Soybean Industry Using Waste Acid with and without Catalyst

Abstract

The study of ethyl esters using waste sources is very important because compared with conventional technologies it does not has the raw material cost. In this context, the present work studied the conversion of fatty acids present in distillate from soy oil deodorization into ethyl ester through an ethyl esterification reaction with sulphuric acid and free catalyst in a batch reactor. The reaction time was in a range of 15 to 120 minutes, and the alcohol:oil molar ratio was 1, 3 and 10. The reactions were carried out in the temperature range from 353.15 to 473.15K. The yield in fatty acids ethyl esters was determined by gas chromatography. The results show significant conversion of oil into biodiesel with and without catalyst. In presence of sulphuric acid the maximum conversion in ethyl ester was 90.2%in 105 minutes and catalyst free was 90.9% with 180 minutes. Kinect model shows very good agreement with the experimental measured values data, the maximum absolute deviation between the experimental and calculated data was 3.5%.