Abstract
The kinetics of the transesterification of soybean oil has been investigated in a centrifugal reactor at temperatures from 45 to 80�C and pressures up to 2.6 bar using gas chromatography flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The yields of product methyl esters were quantified using IR, proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (H1NMR), and viscosity measurements and were found to achieve 90% of the yield in 2 min; however, to meet ASTM specifications with one pass through the reactor, a 15 min residence time was needed. Performance was improved by sequential reactions, allowing separation of by-product glycerine and injection of additional small aliquots of methanol. The kinetics was modeled using a three-step mechanism of reversible reactions, which was used to predict performance at commercial scale. The mechanism correctly predicted the exponential decline in reaction rate as the concentration of the products allowed significant reverse reactions to occur.
