Clam shell catalyst for continuous production of biodiesel

ABSTRACT

Continuous flow transesterification of waste frying oil (WFO) with methanol for the biodiesel production was tested in a laboratory scale jacketed reactive distillation (RD) unit packed with clam shell based CaO as solid catalyst. The physiochemical properties of the clam shell catalysts were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive Atomic X-ray Spectrometry (EDAX). The effects of the reactant flow rate, methanol-to-oil ratio, and catalyst bed height were studied to obtain the maximum methyl ester conversion. Reboiler temperature of 65°C was maintained throughout the process for product purification and the system reached the steady state at 7 hr. The experimental results revealed that the jacketed RD system packed with clam shell based CaO showed high catalytic activity for continuous production of biodiesel and a maximum methyl ester conversion of 94.41% was obtained at a reactant flow rate of 0.2 mL/min, methanol/oil ratio of 6:1, and catalyst bed height of 180 mm.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiesel
• clam shell
• continuous process: transesterification
• reactive distillation

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, in the form of Senior Research Fellowship to S. Niju.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, in the form of Senior Research Fellowship to S. Niju.