Transesterification of vegetable oil to biodiesel fuel using acid catalysts in the presence of dimethyl ether

The immiscibility of methanol and vegetable oil leads to a mass-transfer resistance in the transesterification of vegetable oil. To overcome this problem, dimethyl ether (DME) was used as an environmentally friendly cosolvent to produce a homogeneous solution. Methylesterifications of corn oil in both the presence and the absence of DME were performed using p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA), benzenesulfonic acid and sulfuric acid. PTSA showed highest catalytic activity. The yield of FAME reached 97.1% when 4 wt% of PTSA based on the oil weight was used at 80 °C with a reaction time of 2 h in the presence of DME. The obtained biodiesel was composed of methyl palmitate (9.1 wt%), methyl oleate (33.9 wt%), methyl linoleate (53.5 wt%), methyl linolenate (3.0 wt%) and methyl arachidate (0.5 wt%), and it was similar to the biodiesel compositions from corn oil as reported. The effects of concentrations of FFA and water on FAME yields were also investigated. All results suggested that the reaction rate was greatly improved by the addition of DME to the reaction system.