SONGKLANAKARIN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Volume 41, No. 06, Month NOVEMBER, Year 2019, Pages 1282 - 1286

Image analysis of glycerol effecting on transesterification

Kulchanat Prasertsit, Watcharin Rattanapong, Suphattra Keangjui, Poonnanat Phoopisutthisak, Chakrit Tongurai

Abstract Download PDF

As known, glycerol, one of the products from reversible transesterification of alcohol with glycerides, drives the reaction backward. This work focuses on the effects of glycerol in the reaction with image analysis. The experiments were done by using various alcohols and refined palm oil (molar ratio of 6:1) with sodium methoxide catalyst (0.6% w/w oil) at 60 oC for 10 minutes. Amounts of glycerol and order of mixing glycerol with oil or alcohol were studied. Results show that the glycerol amount estimated from image analysis is mostly compatible with titration determinations. Image analysis shows that glycerol dissolves well in methanol and yields less generated glycerol. The different alcohols give different amounts of glycerol. Longer reaction time gives more and larger glycerol drops, which slows down the mass transfer rate of transesterification and induces the reaction to pseudoequilibrium.

Keywords

refined palm oil, transesterification, image analysis, glycerol, confocal laser microscope

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