Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 32 (2) June 2020, p. 294-302
CONTINUOUS AND CIRCULATED BATCH PROCESSES FOR ESTERIFICATION OF FREE FATTY ACIDS BY NOVOZYM 435 IN EXPANDED BED REACTOR: A CASE STUDY OF PALM FATTY ACID DISTILLATE
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2020.0022
Published Online: 15 May 2020
An effective process for esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) by Novozym 435 in expanded bed reactors was developed. Oleic acid and palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) were used as FFA. In the circulated batch process, Novozym 435 was reusable for 22 cycles with an FFA conversion greater than 90%. Furthermore, in the continuous process using four expanded bed reactors connected in series, FFA conversions from the esterification of oleic acid and PFAD with a total residence time of 80 min were 93.5% and 88.5%, with the overall productivity of about 1000 g and 940 g fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) litre-1 hr-1, respectively.
KEYWORDS:* Chemical Engineering Research Unit for Value Adding of Bioresources, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. E-mail: muenduen.p@chula.ac.th