Title:
REACTIVE DISTILLATION COLUMN TO PRODUCE BIODIESEL FROM RESIDUAL FRYING OIL

Authors:
Ana Kiesse Zeleme, Elson Joel de Melo João, Garcia Cussiala, Elma Mateus, Eder Dias and António André Chivanga Barros, Angola

Abstract:

Environment concerns related to the use of fossil fuels is reflected in proposals for new conversion technologies to produce biofuels from biomass. The biofuels produced in this context have the same characteristics as petroleum derivatives, however, with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and with no sulfur in their molecular structures. In this context, a reactive distillation (RD) column was designed, constructed, installed and operated using process intensification principles. It was applied in the production of biodiesel, using residual frying oil as the raw material, by the transesterification reaction, in a continuous regime. The process started with alcohol in excess in the reboiler, located in the bottom of the RD, which was heated through the combustion gas of GLP to produce ethanol vapor, which was recirculated in the column until stabilization. Also, in this stage, the reagents (with masses previously calculated based on stoichiometric relations) were inserted into the respective feed tanks. With the definition of the operation time, the tank valves were opened to give the appropriate flowrate of each reactant. The reaction products were recovered during the experiment from the bottom of the column and they were distilled to obtain two phases, biodiesel (the light phase) and glycerol (the heavy phase. The results obtained from this study show that the use of an RD column based on process intensification principles can produce biodiesel in a continuous regime. Further research is required to improve the yield through optimization of the operation parameters.