Biodiesel fuels yields, transesterification

Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) show large potential applications as diesel substitutes, also known as biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel fuel as renewable energy is an alternative that can reduce energy dependence on petroleum as well as air pollution. Several processes for the production of biodiesel fuel have been developed. Transesterification processes under alkali catalysis with short-chain alcohols give high yields of methyl esters in short reaction times. We investigated transesterification of rapeseed oil to produce the FAMEs. Experimental reaction conditions were molar ratio of oil to alcohol, concentration of catalyst, type of catalyst, reaction time, and temperature. The conversion ratio of rapeseed oil was enhanced by the alcohohoil mixing ratio and the reaction temperature. 

A catalyst-free supercritical methanol method for biodiesel fuel production was proposed with the optimum conditions of 350°C, 20 MPa, a molar ratio of 42 in methanol, and a 4-min treatment period (12-13). This method has been proved to produce a high yield, because of simultaneous reactions of transesterification of triglycerides and methyl esterification of free fatty acids (10). The only shortcoming of this one-step method is that it requires a severe reaction condition compared with the conventional commercial method with acid or alkaline catalyst. Consequently, our method would require a special alloy to cover the high temperature and high pressure of the reaction system. 

In general, alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, amyl alcohol, etc., can be used with acid-catalyzed transesterifications to obtain high biodiesel yields. " Methanol is preferred due to its low cost and wide availability, but bioderived ethanol would be ideal for the synthesis of a fully biogenerated fuel. On the other hand, the use of heavier alcohols like butanol... 

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