Modeling of biodiesel production in a membrane reactor using solid alkali catalyst

A mathematical model based on the pore model of membrane, liquid liquid equilibrium model and reaction kinetics model for biodiesel production in membrane reactor was developed. The parameters of the model were calculated from the membrane reaction process of the transesterification between soybean oil and methanol catalyzed by KF/Ca-Mg-Al hydrotalcite. The biodiesel yield calculated by the model fitted the experimental data well. The model simulated results indicated that the membrane reaction system can be divided in biodiesel accumulation and membrane separation of biodiesel stage. In the studied temperature range, the biodiesel yield with the same reaction time increased with the increase in temperature. However, the maximum yields under of all temperatures were almost the same. The results proved that the membrane reactor can shift the transesterification equilibrium to the products side by continuously removing the products.