Abstract—Biodiesel is a fuel commonly produced through the process of transesterification or alcoholysis. In this reaction, triglycerides react with short chain alcohols, producing a mixture of fatty acid esters (biodiesel) and glycerol. Esters of fatty acids and glycerol are partially miscible, forming two liquid phases in the separation of these products. The determination of equilibrium data for liquid-liquid (ELL) for these systems is essential to a better understanding of the reaction process, improving the reaction rate, selectivity, and simulation and optimization of the reactor and the system of separation of products. In this paper we experimentally measured data for ELL pseudo-ternary systems of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)/methanol/glycerol and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE)/ethanol/glycerol at 30, 45 and 60 ° C. The biodiesel used in this work was produced by transesterification of cottonseed oil. The measured experimental data were used to evaluate the prediction of the UNIFAC method for such systems.
Index Terms—Biodiesel, liquid-liquid equilibrium, UNIFAC.
The authors are with the Fuels Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av Professor Arthur de Sá S/N, Cidade Universitária, 5070-521, Recife-PE, Brazil (e-mail: iury.silva@ufpe.br).
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Cite:Ana Carolina de Sousa Maia, Iury Sousa e Silva, and Luiz Stragevitch, "Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium of Methyl Esters of Fatty Acid / Methanol / Glycerol and Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters / Ethanol / Glycerol: A Case Study for Biodiesel Application," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 285-289, 2013.
