Biodiesel fuels from palm oil via the non-catalytic transesterification in a bubble column reactor at atmospheric pressure: A kinetic study

Biodiesel has become more attractive recently because of its environmental benefits and the fact that it is made from renewable resources. Transesterification of vegetable oils with short-chain alcohol has long been a preferred method for producing biodiesel fuel. A new reactor was developed to produce fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) by blowing bubbles of superheated methanol vapor continuously into vegetable oil without using any catalysts. A kinetic study on the non-catalytic transesterification of palm oil was made in a reactor without stirring at atmospheric pressure. The effects of reaction temperatures (523, 543, and 563 K) on the rate constant, conversion, yield of methyl esters (ME) and composition of the reaction product under semi-batch mode operation are investigated. The activation energy and the frequency factor values of the transesterification reaction obtained in this experiment are 31 kJ/mol and 4.2, respectively. The optimum reaction temperature which gives the highest ME content (95.17% w/w) in the reaction product is 523 K, while the rate constant of the total system increased with reaction temperature.