Phase Equilibrium of Biodiesel Compounds for the Triolein + Palmitic Acid + Methanol System with Dimethyl Ether as Cosolvent
Kouji Maeda, Hidetoshi Kuramochi, Taisei Fujimoto, Yusuke Asakuma, Keisuke Fukui, Masahiro Osako,Kazuo Nakamura, and Shin-ichi Sakai
J. Chem. Eng. Data, in press(2008)
In biodiesel production, transesterification in a homogeneous mixture is possible if a solution of triolein and
methanol could be prepared with the use of a cosolvent. The volatile solvent dimethyl ether (DME) can
make the immiscible mixture of triolein and methanol miscible; moreover, it can be easily recovered due to
its high volatility after reaction. Therefore, the vapor-liquid-liquid equilibrium for the triolein + fatty
acid-methanol + DME system was determined by determining the liquid composition, temperature, and
pressure of the system. Results showed that DME and palmitic acid effectively promoted the mutual solubilities
of triolein and methanol. In addition, the UNIFAC prediction was compared with experimental data, and it
was found that the UNIFAC model could represent the complicated phase equilibrium of biodiesel compounds.