Optimization of Biodiesel Production over Chicken Eggshell-Derived CaO Catalyst in a Continuous Centrifugal Contactor Separator

Ebrahim Fayyazi; Barat Ghobadian; Henk H van de Bovenkamp; Gholamhassan Najafi; Bahram Hosseinzadehsamani; Hero Jan Heeres; Jun Yue

doi:10.1021/acs.iecr.8b02678

Optimization of Biodiesel Production over Chicken Eggshell-Derived CaO Catalyst in a Continuous Centrifugal Contactor Separator

Ind Eng Chem Res. 2018 Sep 26;57(38):12742-12755. doi: 10.1021/acs.iecr.8b02678. Epub 2018 Aug 30.

Authors

Ebrahim Fayyazi^{1

2}, Barat Ghobadian², Henk H van de Bovenkamp¹, Gholamhassan Najafi², Bahram Hosseinzadehsamani^{1

3}, Hero Jan Heeres¹, Jun Yue¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
² Department of Biosystems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran 14114, Iran.
³ Department of Biosystems Engineering, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord 8818634141, Iran.

Abstract

Solid calcium oxide (CaO) catalyst was prepared via the calcination of chicken eggshells as an environmentally friendly waste resource and incorporated in a continuous centrifugal contactor separator (CCCS) for intensified biodiesel synthesis. Biodiesel or fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were produced via the transesterification of sunflower oil (containing 5 wt % tetrahydrofuran as a cosolvent) with methanol under 60 °C and separated from the glycerol and catalyst phases continuously in the CCCS. The influence of reaction parameters on biodiesel production was well modeled by response surface methodology. At an oil flow rate of 9 mL/min, an alcohol to oil molar ratio of 11:1, and a weight hourly space time (defined as the catalyst weight over the oil mass flow rate) of 0.050 h, an optimized FAME yield of 83.2% with a productivity of 638 kg_FAME/(m³ _reactor·h) was achieved. CaO catalyst was reused without significant activity loss for at least four cycles.