Biodiesel production from waste chicken fat with low free fatty acids by an integrated catalytic process of composite membrane and sodium methoxide

An integrated process of catalytic composite membranes (CCMs) and sodium methoxide was developed to produce biodiesel from waste chicken fat. The free fatty acids (FFAs) in the chicken oil were converted to methyl esters by esterification with methanol using a novel sulfonated polyethersulfone (SPES)/PES/non-woven fabric (NWF) CCMs in a flow-through catalytic membrane reactor. The CCM is that the NWF fibers were fully embedded in SPES/PES with a homogeneous and microporous structure. The oil obtained after esterification was carried out by transesterification of sodium methoxide. The results showed that the FFAs conversion obtained by CCMs with the acid capacity of 25.28 mmol (H+) was 92.8% at the residence time 258 s. The CCMs present a good stability during the continuous running of 500 h. The conversion of transesterification was 98.1% under the optimum conditions. The quality of the biodiesel met the international standards.