OP-II-3

PP-I-45KINETICS OF TRANSESTERIFICATION OF MICROALGAE OILFOR THIRD GENERATION BIOFUELS PRODUCTIONPlata V. 1 , Kafarov V. 1 , Moreno N. 21 Industrial University of Santander, Department of Chemical Engineering, Carrera 27calle 9, Bucaramanga, Colombia, tel. +57 +76344000 ext 2603, kafarov@uis.edu.co2 Colombian Petroleum Institute – ICP, Piedecuesta, ColombiaExists now a strong worldwide trend towards the development of a type of socalledthird generation biofuels, which are obtained by similar production methods tothose used in the development of first and second generation biofuels, but applied tobioenergy crops specifically designed or adapted to enhance the conversion ofbiomass to biofuel. Among these, stands out the growing of different species ofmicroalgae, whose oil can be used as feedstock in biodiesel production.Transesterification is the commonly reaction used to produce biodiesel from an oilwith an alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. The corresponding products are amixture of fatty acid alkyl esters and glycerol. This reaction is sensitive to someparameters; the most important are reaction temperature, molar ratio of alcohol to oiland amount of catalyst, which have to be within a certain range of operation in orderto ensure a high conversion.A study of the kinetics of transesterification will provide parameters that can beused to predict the extent of the reaction at any time under particular conditions.Three consecutive and reversible reactions are believed to occur. Mono anddiglycerides are the intermediates formed while three ester molecules are produced.Different authors have raised different reaction mechanisms for the transesterificationof seed oil, which include pseudo second-order and second-order mechanism.Among several studies published on transesterification of microalgae oil, none areconcerned about the reaction kinetics.In this paper, transesterification of microalgae oil in the presence of NaOH as acatalist was conducted in a bacth reactor. The effect of the reaction temperature,molar ratio of alcohol to oil and amount of catalyst on rate constants and kinetic orderwere examined. Samples were collected during the reaction and analyzed by gaschromatography/flame ionization detector (GC/FID). The experimental moleconcentrations were fitted to a mathematical model of a second-order kinetics withoutshunt reaction. The reaction rate constants were determined.301