Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10273322 | Fuel | 2005 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
Transesterification of soybean oil in supercritical methanol has been carried out in the absence of catalyst. A co-solvent was added to the reaction mixture in order to decrease the operating temperature, pressure and molar ratio of alcohol to vegetable oil. With propane as co-solvent in the reaction system, there was a significant decrease in the severity of the conditions required for supercritical reaction, which makes the production of biodiesel using supercritical methanol viable as an industrial process. A high yield of methyl esters (biodiesel) was observed and the production process is environmentally friendly. Furthermore the co-solvent can be reused after suitable pretreatment.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering (General)
Authors
Weiliang Cao, Hengwen Han, Jingchang Zhang,