Final report on LDRD project : biodiesel production from vegetable oils using slit-channel reactors.

Kalu, E. Eric (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL) ; Chen, Ken Shuang

关键词: BIOFUELS;    FEASIBILITY STUDIES;    CHEMICAL REACTORS;    DESIGN;    FABRICATION;    CATALYSTS;    PERFORMANCE;    SOYBEAN OIL;    MATERIALS TESTING;    ESTERIFICATION;    CALCIUM OXIDES;    CATALYTIC EFFECTS;    CALCIUM COMPOUNDS Vegetable oils as fuel.;    Biodiesel fuels.;   

DOI  :  10.2172/928823
RP-ID  :  SAND2008-0213
PID  :  OSTI ID: 928823
Others  :  TRN: US200812%%441

学科分类：燃料技术

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

This report documents work done for a late-start LDRD project, which was carried out during the last quarter of FY07. The objective of this project was to experimentally explore the feasibility of converting vegetable (e.g., soybean) oils to biodiesel by employing slit-channel reactors and solid catalysts. We first designed and fabricated several slit-channel reactors with varying channel depths, and employed them to investigate the improved performance of slit-channel reactors over traditional batch reactors using a NaOH liquid catalyst. We then evaluated the effectiveness of several solid catalysts, including CaO, ZnO, MgO, ZrO{sub 2}, calcium gluconate, and heteropolyacid or HPA (Cs{sub 2.5}H{sub 0.5}PW{sub 12}O{sub 40}), for catalyzing the soybean oil-to-biodiesel transesterification reaction. We found that the slit-channel reactor performance improves as channel depth decreases, as expected; and the conversion efficiency of a slit-channel reactor is significantly higher when its channel is very shallow. We further confirmed CaO as having the highest catalytic activity among the solid catalysts tested, and we demonstrated for the first time calcium gluconate as a promising solid catalyst for converting soybean oil to biodiesel, based on our preliminary batch-mode conversion experiments.