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Recovery of oil via acid‐catalyzed transesterification
Author(s) -
Obibuzor Jude U.,
Abigor Roland D.,
Okiy Dere A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/s11746-003-0654-8
Subject(s) - transesterification , pulp (tooth) , methanol , chemistry , biodiesel , organic chemistry , alkyl , catalysis , pulp and paper industry , ethanol , sulfuric acid , waste oil , waste management , medicine , pathology , engineering
The process of preparing oil palm seed for planting generates vast quantities of waste pulp. The pulp ( ca 80% oil), for which no use has been found, is indiscriminately dumped because either reprocessing it into a useful product or disposing of it properly is expensive. In situ transesterification of the pulp with methanol and ethanol using sulfuric acid as catalyst was carried out on a laboratory scale. Our aim was to develop a process to recover the largely hydrolytically degraded oil (PV, 25–26; FFA, 25–26%) from the pulp. Acid‐catalyzed conversions of the oil into alkyl esters were 96–97% for both methanol and ethanol. The accompanying concentrations of FFA, TG, DG, and MG were low. The identities and proportions of FA ester in the alkyl esters reflected the FA content of the palm oil. The values for the esterified products of some fuel properties such as cloud point and viscosity were slightly below the general current specification. However, with optimization of the reaction conditions and simplification of some of the technical aspects, the waste pulp could be a good source of alkyl esters for both oleochemical and fuel applications.