Application of acidic ionic liquids for the treatment of acidic low grade palm oil for biodiesel production

Journal of Ionic Liquids

Andrew T.H. Yeow¹  Ahmaad Kadmouse Aldeehani²  Falah DH. Alajmi³  Nashwan Abdullah Mohammed Alkahli³  Wan Jefrey Basirun³  Jehad Saleh⁴  Maha A.A. Abdelrahman⁵  Mohd Ali Hashim⁵  Khaled H. Alkandari⁵  Mohd Usman Mohd Junaidi⁶  Adeeb Hayyan⁷  Yatimah Alias⁷ 

[1] Centre for Separation Science &Corresponding author.;Technology (CSST), Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia;University of Malaya Centre for Ionic Liquids (UMCiL), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia;;Centre for Separation Science &Chemical Engineering Department, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia;Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia;

关键词: Esterification;    Free fatty acid;    Ionic liquids;    Acidic crude palm oil;    1‑butyl‑3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Employing low quality feedstocks for biodiesel production can present cost reduction opportunities due to its wide availability and cost effectiveness. However, most low quality feedstocks have high free fatty acid (FFA) content which is not feasible for biodiesel production through direct transesterification due to soap formation. Thus, a pre-treatment step through FFA esterification could reduce the FFA content while simultaneously yielding fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). In this study, the catalytic activity of ten ionic liquids (ILs) were screened for the esterification of FFA in acidic crude palm oil (ACPO). 1‑butyl‑3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate as IL exhibited the highest catalytic activity and was further investigated to determine the optimum operating parameters such as IL dosage, molar ratio, reaction temperature and time. Single factor optimization was employed for the laboratory scale batch esterification reaction. The FFA content was reduced from 10.77% to less than 1% using the following optimum conditions: 4% IL to oil, molar ratio of 10:1 (methanol to oil), 120 min reaction time and 60 °C reaction temperature. Under optimum conditions, the IL can be recycled five times with minimal loss in catalytic activity, highlighting its feasibility as an industrial catalyst for esterification of acidic oils and fats.

【 授权许可】

Unknown