Jiuxu LiuDDepartment of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, 329 Link Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, USAMjliu23@syr.edu

摘要

Refined oils and anhydrous alcohols are required in conventional biodiesel industry since impurities as free fatty acids (FFA) and water poison the catalysts. One of the most promising advantages of the non-catalytic sub/supercritical technology (SCTE) over the conventional method is that it does not require high quality feedstocks, so low-cost waste oils which contains FFA and water, and hydrous alcohols which contains water can be used. However, it is difficult to reach a high biodiesel yield since extending reaction time at those required temperatures will thermally decompose biodiesel product, which has been proved to lower the fuel qualities such as viscosity and cold flow properties. We have known that employing catalysts in the SCTE reactions with high quality feedstocks (refined oils and anhydrous alcohol) will complete the reactions in shorter residence times to avoid decomposition, but we have not determined if those catalysts can still function under the presence of impurities such as FFA and water. Another issue related to biodiesel studies is that much fewer investigations have been done on kinetics of synthesizing FAEEs, which is a potential replacement of FAMEs, than FAMEs. Presently, the kinetic analyses of SCTE ethanolysis reactions have been based on the overall reaction and the model of first-order reaction with respect to triglycerides, and the temperature range is very limited.