K. Suppalakpanya, S. Ratanawilai, C. Tongurai
Jul 1, 2010
Citations
7
Influential Citations
90
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Quality indicators
Journal
Applied Energy
Abstract
The production of ethyl ester from a feed material of esterified crude palm oil with 1.7Â wt% of free fatty acid (FFA) content using microwave heating was investigated. Parametric studies were carried out to investigate the optimum conditions for the transesterification process (amount of ethanol, amount of catalyst and reaction time). As a result, optimum reaction parameters for the transesterification process aided by microwave heating have been identified: a molar ratio of oil to ethanol of 1:8.5, 1.5Â wt% of KOH/oil, a reaction time of 5Â min and a microwave power of 70Â W. Glycerin from the ester phase was separated by adding 10Â wt% of pure glycerin. The ethyl ester was purified with 1.2Â wt% of bleaching earth to remove the residual catalyst and residual glycerin. This transesterification process provided a yield of 85Â wt% with an ester content of 98.1Â wt%. The final ethyl ester product met the specifications stipulated by ASTM D6751-02.