Metanoliza suncokretovog ulja katalizovana negašenim krečom

The synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) from sunflower oil by the quicklime-catalyzed methanolysis reaction was investigated. The catalyst was obtained by calcination of quicklime which was characterized as a mesoporous material with higher basicity and specific area than uncalcinated quicklime. In order to investigate the influence of the methanol-to-oil molar ratio and the catalyst amount on the reaction rate and the FAME yield, sunflower oil methanolysis catalyzed by quicklime was performed in a batch reactor under moderate reaction conditions (reaction temperature 60°C and atmospheric pressure), at different molar ratios of methanol to oil (6:1 – 18:1) and catalyst amounts (1- 10 % based on the oil weight). The variations of the FAME concentration during the reaction were sigmoidal. The FAME formation rate in the initial period of the reaction was slow due to the mass transfer limitation in the three-phase system (methanol-oil-quicklime), followed by the period of the faster FAME formation rate which became slower as the reaction approached the completion. The overall reaction rate depended on the catalyst amount and increased with increasing the catalyst amount due to the increase of the number of catalyst particles and, consequently, the number of active sites on the catalyst surface. Further, the influence of the methanol-to-oil molar ratio on the FAME yield depended on the catalyst amount. At lower catalyst amounts, the FAME yield was slightly higher at higher initial amounts of methanol because the excess of methanol shifted the reaction equilibrium towards the FAME formation. However, the equilibrium was achieved at almost the same time for all methanolto- oil molar ratios. On the other hand, at higher catalyst amounts the molar ratio of methanol to oil had no effect on the reaction rate and the FAME yield. The continuous process for the FAME synthesis was developed and the experiments were conducted in two types of reactors. In order to estimate