Dubé M A, Tremblay A Y, Liu J
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1N 6N5.
Bioresour Technol. 2007 Feb;98(3):639-47. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2006.02.019. Epub 2006 Mar 31.
The immiscibility of canola oil in methanol provides a mass-transfer challenge in the early stages of the transesterification of canola oil in the production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME or biodiesel). To overcome or rather, exploit this situation, a two-phase membrane reactor was developed to produce FAME from canola oil and methanol. The transesterification of canola oil was performed via both acid- or base-catalysis. Runs were performed in the membrane reactor in semi-batch mode at 60, 65 and 70 degrees C and at different catalyst concentrations and feed flow rates. Increases in temperature, catalyst concentration and feedstock (methanol/oil) flow rate significantly increased the conversion of oil to biodiesel. The novel reactor enabled the separation of reaction products (FAME/glycerol in methanol) from the original canola oil feed. The two-phase membrane reactor was particularly useful in removing unreacted canola oil from the FAME product yielding high purity biodiesel and shifting the reaction equilibrium to the product side.
菜籽油与甲醇互不相溶，这在脂肪酸甲酯（FAME或生物柴油）生产过程中菜籽油酯交换反应的早期阶段带来了传质方面的挑战。为了克服或者说利用这种情况，开发了一种两相膜反应器，用于从菜籽油和甲醇生产FAME。菜籽油的酯交换反应通过酸催化或碱催化进行。实验在膜反应器中以半间歇模式在60、65和70摄氏度以及不同催化剂浓度和进料流速下进行。温度、催化剂浓度和原料（甲醇/油）流速的增加显著提高了油向生物柴油的转化率。这种新型反应器能够将反应产物（甲醇中的FAME/甘油）与原始菜籽油进料分离。两相膜反应器在从FAME产物中去除未反应的菜籽油以生产高纯度生物柴油并将反应平衡向产物一侧移动方面特别有用。
