It is known that the content of saturated fatty acids methyl ester (SFAME) affect the pour point of biodiesel at low temperature. In this study, biodiesel (BD) was produced from beef tallow (TAL) by alkali catalyst. To reduce the saturation in BD, acetone fractionation was applied. Besides, TAL was also solvent-fractionated to reduce the saturated fatty acid (SFA) content for further producing BD. With acetone, TAL or TAL methyl ester (5:1 v/w) were fractionated at 10, 0, -10, and -15℃, respectively. At -10℃, 17.35% of SFA was observed in fractionated TAL (liquid part, -10TAL) when 5:1 solvent ratio was used for 24 hr. Under the same condition, fractionated BD (liquid part, -10BD) showed SFA (33.14%) with 78wt % yield. Also, fractionation of BD with different concentration of crystallizer 209 (0.1, 0.5, and 1%) along with different time (2, 6, 12, and 24 hr.) was observed. The best condition for reducing the SFA was 0.5% of crystallizer 209 addition for 12 hr of fractionation time at -10℃, in which 30.14% of SFA content was observed in BD (liquid part). Among different crystallizer, ps 66 showed the least content of SFA content (23.28%) in BD after fractionation (-10℃ and 24 hr) with 0.5wt% addition.
The esterification of the reactants of Jatropha oil and methanol added by propyleneglycol was done using p-TSA catalyst. And then the emulsification of triglyceride and methanol was conduced by 1.0vol% GMS. The emulsified reactants were transesterified at 65℃ using TMAH and mixed catalyst (50wt%-TMAH+50wt%-NaOH) respectively. The esterification conversion at the 1:8 molar ratio of free fatty acid to methanol using 8.0wt% p-TSA was 94.7% within 80min. The overall conversion at the 1:8 molar ratio of mixed fat(50wt% Beef Tallow) to methanol and 65℃ using mixed catalyst was 95.4% The cloud point of Biodiesel decreased with the addition of petroleum diesel.
The transesterifications of beef tallow and the mixture of beef tallow and rapeseed oil were conducted at 65℃ respectively using TMAH, NaOH and their mixed catalysts. The reactants were emulsified with 1vol% emulsifier and propylene glycol. The overall conversion of beef tallow was 95% at such optimum conditions as the 1:8 of molar ratio and 0.8 wt% TMAH. The overall conversion of mixed fat at the 1:8 of molar ratio and mixed catalyst of 70 wt% TMAH 30 wt% NaOH was close to 97% which appeared at 0.8 wt% TMAH in 80min. And the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel mixture using the mixed catalyst was 6.5mm2/s at 40℃.