Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop a new process for producing alternative diesel fuel by simultaneous application of methanolysis and thermal cracking. We evaluated reactor design in terms of the reaction velocity of the methanolysis reaction of triglyceride using a small-scale continuous flow reactor. The yield of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) was 14% or less when using a straight-tube reactor having an internal diameter of 6mm and a length of 500mm. We conjecture that the reason for this low yield is that the reaction area of the two-phase fluids was very small, since oil and methanol did not completely mix in this reactor. We therefore developed a coil-shaped reactor having an internal diameter of 1.78mm and a length of 8,000mm. Using this reactor, the yield of FAME increased to 60%. We consider that the small internal diameter and the shape of the reactor improved the mixing conditions of oil and methanol.
