Kinetics of palm oil ethanolysis

The effect of temperature and catalyst concentration on palm oil ethanolysis using 0.2 to 1 wt% NaOH based on the mass of palm oil was studied at temperatures ranging from 60 to 80 °C, keeping constant the ethanol to oil molar ratio (6:1). A 100% conversion of palm oil and a 96% yield of FAEE (fatty acid ethyl ester) were obtained after 60 min of reaction with 1 wt% NaOH at 70 °C. The increase of temperature between 60 °C and 70 °C on palm oil ethanolysis enhanced the reaction rate, but increase it from 70 °C to 80 °C had the contrary effect. The effect of temperature was higher during the first ten minutes of reaction. Increase of catalyst concentration between 0.2 wt% and 0.5 wt% strongly promoted the yield to FAEE, although this effect was not observed with further increments in the catalyst concentration. A second order kinetic model that predicts the behavior of the intermediate products and the effect of temperature and catalyst concentration was proposed and validated by the Fisher-Snedecor test of unbiased variances. Kinetic model parameters of palm oil ethanolysis and methanolysis were compared and demonstrated similar behavior and orders of magnitude.