An optimized study of methanol and ethanol in supercritical alcohol technology for biodiesel production

In this study, optimization of non-catalytic supercritical methanol reaction via response surface methodology analysis was carried out. Subsequently, the results obtained were compared with reported results of supercritical ethanol in order to investigate the effect of alcohol in supercritical alcohol reaction. Important variables such as reaction time, reaction temperature and molar ratio of alcohol to oil were optimized in order to obtain the optimum yield of biodiesel. Apart from single-parameter effect, response surface methodology also considered the influence of variable interactions in the experimental design. Hence, this method of analysis allows a comprehensive understanding of the process by minimal number of experimental runs. Results obtained from optimization studies showed that supercritical methanol reaction can achieve optimum yield (81.5%) at relatively lower reaction time compared to supercritical ethanol process (79.2%). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.