Production of Aviation Biofuel from Palm Kernel Oil

Abstract

In order to partially replace the use of fossil fuels in the aeronautical sector, it is proposed to produce FAME-type biofuels from palm kernel oil. Short chain methyl esters can be used so that the FAME biodiesel have no significant effects on the cold properties of the Jet Fuels when these are mixtures. In this sense, a study of the production of biodiesel FAME from palm kernel by transesterification oil at bench scale was carried out using a batch reactor with the optimal value of the process conditions that were obtained in a previous work but at laboratory level. In that research, the input variables were the methanol-oil ratio, the temperature and the amount of catalyst (% KOH). In this work, the response variable was on the production yield of methyl esters, which were analysed by GC. Physicochemical characterization of the generated biodiesel and an economic analysis of the bank-scale process was carried out to envision a future implementation in the Colombian Air force. Using additives, the improvement of the cold flow properties (such as freezing point and cloud point) of mixtures of FAME of Palm Kernel Oil with Jet Fuel A1 can be contemplated.