(745c) Production of Biodiesel Fuel From Microalgae Oil Via Supercritical Transesterification Reactions

2012 AIChE Annual Meeting

October 28^th to November 2^nd, Pittsburg, PA

PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL FUEL FROM MICROALGAE OIL VIA SUPERCRITICAL
TRANSESTERIFICATION REACTIONS

Jiuxu Liu, Ronghong
Lin and Lawrence L. Tavlarides*

Department of Biomedical and Chemical
Engineering, Syracuse University,

121 Link Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244,
USA

* Corresponding author. Tel.:
315-443-1883; Fax: 315-443-9175

Email: lltavlar@syr.edu (Tavlarides); jliu23@syr.edu(Liu)

Abstract

Commercial biofuel is primarily produced from vegetable
oil and animal fat. Occupation of more land for biofuel feedstock cultivation
now is harmful to human food resource.  It is important to develop biofuel
produced from non-food feedstocks such as microalgae,
which potentially offers greatest opportunities in the longer term. Biodiesel
synthesis under supercritical conditions provides both energy and economic
benefits over the conventional base catalyzed biodiesel production process. In
this study, supercritical transesterification of microalgae oil with methanol
was investigated at various temperatures (350, 385, and 400 ^oC), pressures (150, 200, and 300 bar), methanol-to-algae
oil molar ratios (from 6:1 to 12:1), and residence times (3-12 min) conditions.
The conversion of and the composition of the reaction intermediates were
determined by GC-FID, free glycerol and bound glycerol fractions in the methyl
ester phase were determined by the ASTM method, and the component of microalgae oil and biodiesel made
in this study will be analyzed by GC-MSD. The
best experimental results for the conversion of triglycerides will be presented.
Because of the low excess of methanol used in this study in comparison with
similar supercritical transesterification processes (up to 42:1), costs
associated with the pumping, preheating, and recovery of the excess methanol
will be greatly reduced in commercial applications.