Kinetics of the transesterification reaction for the production of biodiesel from the oil of Jatropha curcas L., in the province of Manabí, Ecuador

Abstract

In the present work parameters were obtained that characterize the kinetics of the transesterification reaction of the seed oil of Jatropha curcas L. from the province of Manabí, Republic of Ecuador, with methanol using as a catalyst the NaOH in a basic homogeneous system for the obtaining biodiesel. It was worked at temperatures of 50 °C and 60 °C and atmospheric pressure, with a methanol / oil ratio of 10: 1, with 1% by weight of catalyst with respect to the oil. The integral method and the differential method of data analysis, and the initial velocity method for the development of reaction kinetics were used. The data was obtained from samples at different reaction times monitored in gas chromatography, according to the European Standard UNE-EN 14105. The order of the reaction is in the range from 1,3 to 1,5, and an activation energy value in the order of 12 445,59 to 17 798,96 J/mol, according to the data analysis methods used. In the integral method, the adjustments are not satisfactory in the kinetic equations for order zero and order one. The second-order kinetic equation has an acceptable fit. The kinetic results are similar for all the methods, which demonstrate their validity and that are in correspondence with the model adjusted by the integral method.