Continuous production of fatty acid ethyl esters from sunflower oil using supercritical ethanol

► Supercritical transesterification of sunflower oil was carried out in a continuous tubular reactor. ► The use of pure and azeotropic ethanol as reactant was evaluated. ► Density of supercritical mixtures is highly sensitive to operating conditions and composition. ► High pressure and temperature data on density of the reactive mixture was modeled with PR-EoS. ► The model of reactive mixture density was used to evaluate residence time and reaction kinetics.