Parametric study on the production of palm oil methyl ester via sodium hydroxide catalyzed transesterification in a continous static mixer reactor

Date

6-2015

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Rex B. Demafelis

Restrictions

Restricted: Not available to the general public. Access is available only after consultation with author/thesis adviser and only to those bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Abstract

The disk and doughnut static mixer retrofitted by Bataller (2014) was used to produce biodiesel from refined palm oil. Three factors were tested: flow rate (2nd to 5th segment), methanol molar ratio (6.5-7.0), and NaOH molar ratio (0.12-0.18) using a 2k full factorial experimental design. The product was analyzed for its purity using thin layer chromatography and the volumetric yield was measured and calculated. After data analysis from the experimental runs, the factors mentioned above were held constant to determine the effect of reaction time and number of segments used to biodiesel purity. All the runs were done in ambient conditions. It was found out that all the factors tested had significant effect on the purity. Furthermore, increasing the methanol to oil and NaOH to oil molar ratio caused the purity to increase, while an inverse relationship between flow rate and purity was observed. On the other hand, the product yield was only affected by NaOH to oil molar ratio (increasing the NaOH molar ratio caused the product yield to increase). Lastly, the reaction time and the number of segments used were directly related to purity. A maximum purity of 98.12% was obtained on the 4th segment with an equivalent reaction time of 122.8 seconds.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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