Kinetic study of the esterification of free fatty acids in non-edible Pongamia pinnata oil using acid catalyst

K V  Thiruvengadaravi; J  Nandagopal; V  Sathya Selva Bala; S  Dinesh Kirupha; P  Vijayalakshmi  and S  Sivanesan

doi:10.17485/ijst/2009/v2i12.4

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Kinetic study of the esterification of free fatty acids in non-edible Pongamia pinnata oil using acid catalyst

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Indian Journal of Science and Technology

DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2009/v2i12.4

Year: 2009, Volume: 2, Issue: 12, Pages: 20-24

Original Article

Kinetic study of the esterification of free fatty acids in non-edible Pongamia pinnata oil using acid catalyst

K.V. Thiruvengadaravi¹ , J. Nandagopal¹ , V. Sathya Selva Bala² , S. Dinesh Kirupha² , P. Vijayalakshmi² and S. Sivanesan²

¹Department of Chemistry, Velammal Engineering College, Chennai- 600 066, India.
²Department of Chemical Engineering, A.C. College of Technology, Anna University, Chennai- 600 025, India.

*Author for the correspondence:
S. Sivanesan
Department of Chemical Engineering, A.C. College of Technology,
Anna University, Chennai- 600 025, India.
E-mail: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Pre treatment of high free fatty acid containing Pongamia pinnata oil using sulfuric acid catalyst has been optimized. The kinetics of the pre treatment esterification process was studied. The experimental results were found to fit a Pseudo first-order kinetics. The influence of temperature on the rate constants was determined by fitting the results to the Arrhenius equation. The activation energy and frequency factor were favorable for the forward reaction. Based on the experimental results, a methanol to oil ratio of 9:1, one percentage catalyst by weight, and a temperature of 600 C, were selected as the optimum settings for the esterification process.

Keywords: Pongamia pinnata oil, free fatty acid, esterification, acid catalyst, kinetics