Microwave-Assisted Noncatalytic Esterification of Fatty Acid for Biodiesel Production: A Kinetic Study
Hoang Chinh Nguyen, Fu‐Ming Wang, Kim Khue Dinh, Thanh Truc Pham, Horng-Yi Juan, Nguyen Phuong Nguyen, Hwai Chyuan Ong, Chia‐Hung Su
Abstract
This study developed a microwave-mediated noncatalytic esterification of oleic acid for producing ethyl biodiesel. The microwave irradiation process outperformed conventional heating methods for the reaction. A highest reaction conversion, 97.62%, was achieved by performing esterification with microwave irradiation at a microwave power of 150 W, 2:1 ethanol:oleic acid molar ratio, reaction time of 6 h, and temperature of 473 K. A second-order reaction model (R2 of up to 0.997) was established to describe esterification. The reaction rate constants were promoted with increasing microwave power and temperature. A strong linear relation of microwave power to pre-exponential factors was also established, and microwave power greatly influenced the reaction due to nonthermal effects. This study suggested that microwave-assisted noncatalytic esterification is an efficient approach for biodiesel synthesis.