Esterification of high FFA tung oil with solid acid catalyst in fixed bed reactor

The effect of molar ratio of methanol to oil, temperature and space velocity (SV) on pre-esterification of Tung oil was carried out in pilot-scale fixed bed reactor, with solid acid catalysts. The molar ratio results showed the maximum acid value reduction efficiency (90.21%) was obtained at the molar ratio of 8:1, the acid value decreased sharply to 0.70 g kg−1 of KOH. And esterification reaction attained balance when space velocity was enough, so 0.029 h−1 was optimal space velocity. Furthermore, activity of reactant and rate of reaction increase with temperature increased, and the maximum conversion was achieved at 65 °C, the acid value of Tung oil could be reduced to 1.4 g kg−1 of KOH.