ETHANOLYSIS OF JATROPHA CURCAS L. OIL IN A CENTRIFUGAL CONTACTOR SEPARATOR

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel which has received considerable attention due to its numerous benefits and applications [1]. Production of biodiesel via trans-esterification of an organically derived oil or fat with an alcohol and catalyst has been extensively studied [2]. However, there is still considerable room for improvements, for example by using novel reactor configurations. We have investigated the use of highly process intensified continuously operated Centrifugal Contactor Separators (CCS) for biodiesel synthesis [3]. In the device, mixing and subsequent separation of liquid-liquid systems are performed in a single device (Figure 1).

Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a CCS. Dark and light grey areas represent the heavy and light liquid whereas the hatched area corresponds to the dispersion.

It proved possible to use a CCS (CINC V-02) to produce fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from sunflower oil and methanol in a continuous mode with a reproducible yield of 96 %-mol [3]. Currently, there is a growing interest to use ethanol for biodiesel production. In comparison to methanol, ethanol has better solvent properties, lower toxicity, higher heat content and cetane number and can be obtained from renewable resources [4]. We here report our studies on the synthesis of biodiesel derived from Jatropha curcas L. and ethanol in a CCS device. The effect of flow rates, rotational speed, catalyst concentration and molar ratio of ethanol to oil was investigated. An optimized yield of 98 %-mol fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) was achieved at an oil feed rate of 28 ml/min with six-fold molar excess ethanol containing 1 %-w/w/of sodium ethoxide with respect to the oil. The system was operated at a jacket temperature of 70 oC and a rotational frequency of 35 Hz. The volumetric productivity of FAEE (in mol/l.s) was compared with batch data and shown to be considerably higher, clearly demonstrating the potential of this technology for biodiesel synthesis using ethanol.

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