US EPA

8305953 

Journal Article 

Production of biodiesel using supercritical methanol technology 

Xiao, M; Yin, JZ; Song, JB 

2006 

26 

SUPPL. 2 

301-303 

Chinese 

The effect factors of different reaction conditions on the yield of fatty acid methyl esters were investigated, which including reaction temperature, the molar ratio of methanol to oil, reaction time and co-solvent, etc. The rigorous operation conditions can be improved by adding a little amount of KOH. Under the optimal reaction conditions such as temperature of 350°C and the molar ratio of methanol to oil of 42, a 95.0% yield of methyl esters was obtained in 10 minutes with the supercritical condition. With CO2 or n-hexane as co-solvents in the reaction system, there was a significant increase in the methyl esters yield. Under the optimal reaction temperature of 160°C, the molar ratio of methanol to oil of 24, a 98.5% yield of methyl esters was observed in 20 minutes under the sub-critical condition with the 0.1 wt% KOH added. 

Biodiesel; Supercritical methanol; Transesterification