BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM HIGH ACIDIFIED OIL THROUGH SOLID ACID CATALYST AND PLUG FLOW REACTOR

摘要

A pilot scale of 200 t/year biodiesel production system was setup to test the different feedstock oil for their feasibility of being biodiesel feedstock in China. The tested oil include: rapeseed oil, Chinese wood oil, trap grease. Meanwhile the optimum operating conditions for a plug flow reactor to convert transesterification reaction was investigated in this study. They were found to be as follows: the catalyst dosage is 1.2 wt%; the residence time is about 17min; the bed temperature is 65°C; the oil/methanol ratio is 1:6; the content of methyl ester is 96.33% under these conditions. A kind of an ion exchange resin filled in the fixed bed reactor was used as the esterification catalyst for the pretreating of high-acidified oil. The acid value of the oil could be reduced from 7 to 0.8 mgKOH·g-1 after 88 min. Also a kind of acidified oil with the acid value being 114 mg KOH·g-1 could be equally converted to a good biodiesel product through this system. Generally, the refined biodiesel product generated through this system could meet China #0 biodiesel standard, as well as Germany biodiesel standard for most indexes. It indicates that the designed process in this system has a good adaptability for different kinds of oil.