Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Vol.98, 239-244, 2015
Kinetic analysis of transesterification of waste pig fat in supercritical alcohols
The kinetic analysis method using non-isothermal technique was proposed to determine the kinetic parameters for the transesterification reaction of waste pig fat in supercritical alcohols. To investigate the transesterification of waste pig fat, the waste pig fat to alcohol ratio (w/w) was varied from 1:1.5 to 1:2.5 between the temperatures 220 and 290 degrees C at an interval of 10 degrees C in a 25 mL batch reactor. The products were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed kinetic analysis method, the experimental values were compared with the values calculated using the kinetic parameters obtained from this work. It was found that the proposed kinetic analysis method gave reliable kinetic parameters for the transesterification of waste pig fat in supercritical alcohols. Further, it was found that the apparent activation energy for supercritical ethanol was lower than the value for supercritical methanol. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Keywords:Kinetic analysis;Transesterification;Supercritical alcohols;Waste pig fat;Supercritical methanol;Supercritical ethanol