MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF TRANESTERIFICATION OF WASTE VEGETABLE OIL (FRYING OIL) IN A BATCH REACTOR
ABSTRACT
In this study a kinetic model was developed to represent the kinetics of transesterificiation of waste vegetable oil (frying oil) in a batch reactor at different isothermal conditions of 313 K, 323 K, 333 K and 338 K. The reaction occurs in series of 3 steps. Solution to the model was derived using MATLAB the method for solving was done by applying ode solver ode15s which makes use of backward differential formulas known as Gear method was used to solve the equations derived and to simulate kinetic data from literature. The effect of temperature on concentration profile of species and the reaction rate constant was studied for the selected isothermal conditions. Temperature had no effect on formation of triglyceride, alcohol and Methyl ester because the concentration at 313 K, 323 K, 333 K and 338 K were close but temperature favoured the formation of Diglyceride and Monoglyceride. High temperature did not favour formation of glycerol which is the undesired product. The maximum yield of methyl ester for was obtained at 338 K which was 79.97%.and corresponds to what was obtain experimentally from the work of Jisieke (2015).The molar ratio of methanol to oil was held constant at 6:1.the rate constant obtained from the simulation were close to that which is obtainable from the work of Nivea et al. (2008) .The value of the rate constant k2 and k-2 increased as temperature increased.