Kampars V., Kampare R., Sile E., Roze M., 2020, Harmonization of Biodiesel Composition via Competitive Interesterification – Transesterification, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 80, 91-96.
A pure interesterification reaction of triglyceride with methyl acetate in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide homogeneous catalyst produces a reaction mixture containing 72.5 wt.% of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and 14 wt.% of triacetin. In order to harmonise the content of the reaction mixture by increasing the fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAE) and decreasing the content of triacetin, in this work a competitive interesterification – transesterification conversion of triglyceride has been made using iso-propanol. Due to the low reactivity of iso-propanol, it is possible to carry out the targeted harmonisation of biofuel composition by increasing the FAAE content up to 81.9 wt.% while retaining a relatively high triacetin content (6-9 wt.%). The lowering of the triacetin content and replacing it with the fatty acid iso-propyl esters provides the opportunity to obtain products that are more similar to conventional biodiesel and improve the cold flow properties of the fuel.
