Right now We successfull to do Esterification with solid Catalyst"Amberlyst resin". I can reduce 15%FFA in Crude Palm Oil(Pre-Treatmented) to 0.6%FFA after Settling Wet MeOH on the Top layer I drain Esterified Oil to go to Trans-Esterification.

CPO-Ester-Trans-esterification.gif (72 Kb, 214 downloads)

After 2 hour mixing we measure FFA value we found That We can reduce from 15% to 0.6%

Amberlyst.gif (16 Kb, 195 downloads)

Interesting results... but I have a few questions...
1.how much methanol you use in this process?
2. You use dry methanol or wet methanol...or during the process you produce water so at the end of the esterification the methanol layer is wet??
3. You use Crude palm oil with a pretreatment..what kind of pretreatment you give to the oil??
4. It's reusable the amberlyst resin??..it's expensive?? how much amberlite you use?

Thanks

Which Amberlyst resin are you using?

quote:

quemala

Dear quemala

1.how much methanol you use in this process?
In the lab with batch reactor It's need more methanol about time to time between Pretreatment palm Oil / Methanol / Catalyst because It's to well mixing by magnetic bar.
2. You use dry methanol or wet methanol...or during the process you produce water so at the end of the esterification the methanol layer is wet?
Yes You can use wet MeOH MV=<2500 PPM but Dry MeOH baster. End of Reaction as same as sulfuric acid Catalyst Esterification, water was producing by Esterification Reaction betweeb FFA+MeOH = ME+H2O sothat If 15%FFA will create 3%Water mix with surplus MeOH.
3. You use Crude palm oil with a pretreatment..what kind of pretreatment you give to the oil?
Pretreatment Palm Oil mean half of Refine Palm Oil (Deguming+Bleaching+Filtering)
4. It's reusable the amberlyst resin??..it's expensive?? how much amberlite you use?
I think So because Acid Catalyst Esterification you can not use SST316 to make Reactor.

Thanks

CPO-Ester-Trans-esterification.gif (74 Kb, 109 downloads)

Hi H2oil...thanks for the answers...I just dont't understand what's SST316 ?? the type of amberlyst you use??

Dear quemala
SST316 is Stanless steel which can work well in Transesterification process for example Biodiesel Dry Tank. but SST316 may be not resist heavy corrosive of H2So4 catalyst id acid eaterification process normally you will use Glass linning Reactor which very expensive than SST316L too.

the type of amberlyst you use?

we test with amberlyst70

Dear Quemala
sorry to reply you to late.
I tested Amberlyst BD20 Solid Catalyst Esterification with Pre-Treated Palm Oil.Is is very high Esterification Efficiency than other Amberlyst too.

Thanks for the answers!!

Dear H2oil,
What temperature are you reacting this at??

Thanks,

Billybob

Me again,

Just thought I'd ask if you've used a coalescing filter to run the methanol/methylesters/triglyceride mixture through to separate the layers??

Thanks again.

Dear All
I'm sorry to reply all slowly.Temperature during test Esterification Reaction with Solid Catalyst = 65 C. but I industrial design R&H recomended operation condition should be Tc =100 C , Pressure =8 Kg/Cm2g
coalescing filter very expencive you can used Settling Tank or Hor. Decanter is bester.

Hello h2oil. How much is price of amberlyst resin.

Dear COCO
I'm not Rohm and Haas Sale people but You can contact them via www.amberlyst.com
for my idea operation cost of Catalyst not more than 12.5 USD/ 1000 liter of Biodiesel from pre-Treated Palm Oil.

After many tries I got Rohm & Haas to return my call, and they were unwilling to sell me BD20. Has anyone here actually purchased it, or have you been using samples?