Abstract
Pumice, a natural porous silica material, exchanged with potassium is an efficient heterogeneous particulate catalytic material for triglycerides and free fatty acids transesterification reaction from sunflower oil and waste frying oil at low temperature. In this work, a packed-bed catalytic configuration reactor using this catalytic material was developed for biodiesel fuel production from sunflower oil and frying oil feedstock. Reactor operation variables as methanol/oil molar ratio, catalyst amount, reaction time, and reaction temperature were studied. Results were compared with those obtained from the same transesterification reaction proceeding in a slurry batch reactor. The packed-bed catalytic reactor configuration can be useful in order to minimize catalyst mechanical damage occurring in the slurry reactor due to continuous stirring. The possibility of using a packed-bed reactor shows some advantages because the catalyst stays confined in the reactor bed and the reaction products can be easily separated, besides the mechanical stability of the catalyst particles is achieved.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Yu X, Wen Z, Lin Y, Tu S, Wang Z, Yan J (2010) Intensification of biodiesel synthesis using metal foam reactor. Fuel 89:3450–3456
Georgogianni KG, Katsoulidis AK, Pomonis PJ, Manos G, Kontominas MG (2009) Transesterification of rapeseed oil for the production of biodiesel using homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Fuel Process Technol 90:1016–1022
Parlak A, Karabas H, Ayhan V, Yasar H, Soyhan HS, Ozsert I (2009) Comparison of the variables affecting the yield of tobacco seed oil methyl ester for KOH and NaOH catalysts. Energy Fuel 23:1818–1824
Dias JM, Alvim-Ferraz MCM, Almeida MF (2008) Comparison of the performance of different homogeneous alkali catalysts during transesterification of waste and virgin oils and evaluation of biodiesel quality. Fuel 87:3572–3578
Hsieh L, Kumar U, Wu JCS (2010) Continuous production of biodiesel in a packed-bed reactor using shell-core structural Ca(C3H7O3)2/CaCO3 catalyst. Chem Eng J 158:250–256
Kusdiana D, Saka S (2004) Effects of water on biodiesel fuel production by supercritical methanol treatment. Bioresour Technol 91:289–295
Xie WL, Peng H, Chen LG (2006) Calcined Mg-Al hydrotalcites as solid base catalyst for methanolysis of soybean oil. J Mol Catal A Chem 246:24–32
Xie W, Yang Z (2007) Ba-ZnO catalyst for soybean oil transesterification. Catal Lett 117:159–165
Neri G, Rizzo G, De Luca L, Corigliano F, Arrigo I, Aricò AS et al (2008) Pt catalysts supported on zeolitized-pumice for the selective hydrogenation of campholenic aldehyde: a characterization and kinetic study. Appl Catal Gen 350:169–177
Álvarez-Galván MC, Brito A, García-Álvarez FJ, De la Peña O’Shea VA, Borges ME, Pawelec B (2008) Catalytic behaviour of bifunctional pumice-supported and zeolite/pumice hybrid catalysts for n-pentane hydroisomerization. Appl Catal Gen 350:38–45
Chuan XY, Hirano M, Inagaki M (2004) Preparation and photocatalytic performance of anatase-mounted natural porous silica, pumice, by hydrolysis under hydrothermal conditions. Appl Catal B Environ 51:255–260
Gök A, Göde F, Türkaslan BE (2006) Synthesis and characterization of polyaniline/pumice (PAn/Pmc) composite. Mater Sci Eng B 133:20–25
Gelbard G (2005) Organic synthesis by catalysis with ion-exchange resins. Ind Eng Chem Res 44:8468–8498
Kiss M, Losonczi B, Morgos J, Rusznak I, Haklits I (1980) Study of alkylating reactions catalyzed by cation-exchange resins. J Chromatogr A 201:383–389
Ni J, Meunier FC (2007) Esterification of free fatty acids in sunflower oil over solid acid catalyst using bath and packed bed-reactors. Appl Catal Gen 333:122–130
Borges ME, Díaz L, Alvarez-Galván MC, Brito A (2011) High performance heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production from vegetal and waste oil at low temperature. Appl Catal B Environ 102:310–315
Shibasaki-Kitakawa N, Honda H, Kuribayashi H, Toda T, Fukumura T, Yonemoto T (2007) Biodiesel production using anionic ion-exchange resin as heterogeneous catalyst. Bioresour Technol 98:416–421
Gelbard G, Brès O, Vargas RM, Vielfaure F, Schuchardt UF (1995) 1H nuclear magnetic resonance determination of the yield of the transesterification of rapeseed oil with methanol. J Am Oil Chem Soc 72:1239–1241
Borges ME, Díaz L, Gavín J, Brito A (2011) Estimation of the content of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) in biodiesel samples from dynamic viscosity measurements. Fuel Process Technol 92:597–599
Liu H, Su L, Liu F, Li C, Solomon U (2011) Cinder supported K2CO3 as catalyst for biodiesel production. Appl Catal B Environ 106:550–558
Chiu C, Goff M, Suppes G (2005) Distribution of methanol and catalysts between biodiesel and glycerin phases. AICHE J 51(4):1274–1278
Martín Alonso D, Mariscal R, Moreno-Tost R, Zafra Poves MD, López Granados M (2007) Potassium leaching during triglyceride transesterification using K/γ-Al2O3 catalysts. Catal Commun 8:2074–2080
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge a research grant support by Programa de FPU del Ministerio de Educación, Spain.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Borges, M.E., Díaz, L. Catalytic Packed-Bed Reactor Configuration for Biodiesel Production Using Waste Oil as Feedstock. Bioenerg. Res. 6, 222–228 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-012-9246-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-012-9246-7