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Esterification of Free Fatty Acids in Zanthoxylum bungeanum Seed Oil for Biodiesel Production by Stannic Chloride
Author(s) -
Zhang Junhua,
Liu Jianjun,
Ma Hunian
Publication year - 2012
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/s11746-012-2067-1
Subject(s) - biodiesel , methanol , catalysis , chemistry , central composite design , response surface methodology , molar ratio , biodiesel production , organic chemistry , fatty acid , nuclear chemistry , chromatography
In this study, SnCl 4 was chosen as a solid catalyst for esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) in Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed oil (ZSO). A central composite rotatable design was used to investigate the effect of the methanol‐to‐oil molar ratio, catalyst amount and reaction time on the SnCl 4 ‐catalyzed esterification of FFA. The methanol‐to‐oil molar ratio and reaction time clearly affected the conversion efficiency of FFA in the test ranges. Response surface methodology was used to optimize the conditions for SnCl 4 ‐catalyzed esterification. A quadratic polynomial equation was obtained for conversion efficiency of FFA by multiple regression analysis and verification experiments confirmed the validity of the predicted model. Under the optimum conditions, the conversion efficiency of FFA in vegetable oil reached above 96 %. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of SnCl 4 as an acid catalyst for the reduction of high FFA content in vegetable oils to a low level by one‐step esterification.