Design and test of a continuous reactor for palm oil transesterification

Abstract

The continuous reactor for transesterification of refined palm oil with methanol was designed and tested. The reaction condition was focused at ambient pressure, temperature of 60ºC, molar ratio of alcohol to oil of 6:1, and NaOH of 1.0 %wt of oil. The designed reactor was in a form of a 6-stage mechanically stirred tank. Rushton turbines, with 4 standard baffles, and plates with a small opening were installed inside. The reactor has a simple form which could be conveniently constructed and operated. The reactor could produce methyl esters (ME) with purities ranging from 97.5-99.2 %wt within residence times of 6-12 minutes in which its production performance was equivalent to a plug flow reactor and the power consumption of a stirrer in the range of 0.2-0.6 kW/m3 was required. The reaction modeling based on a homogeneous concentration field with reaction kinetics could accurately predict the produced purities of ME. The production yields by weight of final product and of ME to the fed oil were 94.7 and 92.3%, respectively. The developed continuous reactor has good potential for producing ME to be used as biodiesel.