Energy & Fuels, Vol.20, No.4, 1722-1726, 2006
Kinetics of Brassica carinata oil methanolysis
A study was made of the kinetics of Brassica carinata oil methanolysis. This reaction yields fatty acid methyl esters and glycerol and consists of three consecutive reversible reactions. Diglycerides and monoglycerides are intermediate products. The mechanism of B. carinata oil methanolysis involves an initial stage of mass-transfer control, followed by a second region of kinetic control. However, the initial mass transfer-controlled step is negligible using an impeller speed of at least 600 rpm. The experiments were performed in a batch reactor stirred at 600 rpm over 2 h using potassium hydroxide as the catalyst at atmospheric pressure with a 6/1 molar ratio of methanol to B. carinata oil. The resultant mixture was analyzed by gas chromatography. The effects of temperature and catalyst concentration on the reaction rates were analyzed, determining the reaction rate constants and the activation energies. The B. carinata oil methanolysis can be described as a pseudo-homogeneous catalyzed reaction system, following a second-order mechanism for the forward and reverse reactions. Higher temperatures and catalyst concentrations increased the reaction rates. The proposed mathematical model matched the experiment results.