Heat-Modeling of Microwave Assisted Epoxidation of Palm Acid Oil | Science Publications

American Journal of Applied Sciences

K. X. Ning¹  N. Saifuddin¹  L. W. Zhan¹ 

关键词: Microwave chemistry;    chemo-enzymatic;    non-thermal effects;    Palm Acid Oil (PAO);    Finite Element Model (FEM);    electromagnetic calculations;    heat-modeling;    energy-saving;    activation energy;   

DOI  :  10.3844/ajassp.2011.217.229

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Science Publications

【 摘 要 】

Problem statement: While microwave chemistry could well be the most convenient, rapidand energy-saving way to initiate a chemical reaction, the issues of thermal versus microwave specificeffect remain unaddressed. Approach: A three-dimensional Finite Element Model (FEM) was developedto predict temperature profile during the enzymatic epoxidation of palm acid oil using microwaveheating. Three-dimensional partial differential equations are formulated for the electromagnetic field andheat and mass transfer processes. The temperature profile of the FEM generated from the commercialsoftware (ANSYS Emag) was verified using experimental data from microwave oven heated samplescontaining palm acid oil and reactants in cylindrical bottles and has compared favorably with real timedata. An Infra Red thermometer was used to measure temperature of the reactants during the real timeexperiment to ensure less contact with the reaction vessel. Results: Apart from ascertaining thetemperature profile of the epoxidation process in the cylindrical bottle, the heat-modeling of this reactioncan predict the Energy required during the reaction and provide insights to non-thermal microwaveeffects. It has shown the possibility of Microwave Non-Thermal Effects and Microwave Selectivity inSubstrate Specificity. The energy used by the microwave irradiated reaction is by far much lesser than theenergy used in conventional heating. This study has also improved the epoxidation process of Palm AcidOil by incorporating enzyme as a catalyst and using microwave heating. Epoxidation can be done rapidlyand at a lower level of activation energy of 27.767 kJ mol⁻¹. It is a green process with increasedefficiency as it reduced a typically 5-hour reaction to less than an hour. Conclusion: In this study, aquantitative view of a microwave assisted process of enzymatic epoxidation has been established. Wehave successfully developed and experimentally validated a 3D electromagnetic heat transfer model. Thismodel can thus be used to predict the energy of the epoxidation and other future microwave reactions. thestudy also have shown the existence of microwave non-thermal effects and microwave selectivity insubstrate specificity.

【 授权许可】

Unknown