| 摘要 |
It is therefore the objective of this present invention to provide a method of processing free fatty acid from low cost vegetable oil and animal oil sources to alkyl esters with the following advantage a) Reaction rate is much faster than previous invention. Reaction completed in 1-2 hours. b) Reduction in salts, soap stocks and aqueous waste or even total elimination of waste. c) Reduction in energy usage. On one option does not require vacuum for operation and hence save capital and operational cost as well. d) Does not requires methanol on first process stage and eliminate the requirement of fractional distillation with is associate capital and operational cost. These and other advantages are accomplished by converting the vegetable or animal oil source free fatty acid content to glycerides in the first step and in the second step convert the created glycerides together with the original oil to fatty acid alkyl ester which is commonly called biodiesel. The converted oil in the first step may be monoglyceride, diglyceride or triglyceride or a mixture of the above. It can be either animal or vegetable base sources. The converted oil is then reacted with methanol to form biodiesel and glycerin thru known process in the art such as using alkaline catalyst. The invention different from previous inventions by using entrainer to removed water of reaction and this enable much faster reaction time. The invention also different from others in that the oil is pretreated to removed dissolved oxygen so operation can proceed at much higher temperature without oxidation taking place and degrade the oil. This step is optional if the oil and it component mixtures have extremely little dissolved oxygen and absence of degummed products or organic components that will discompose at the reaction temperature forming gum in the reactor.
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