Kinetic modeling of cottonseed oil transesterification with ethanol

This study aimed to evaluate the kinetic behavior of cottonseed oil transesterification with ethanol based on a pseudo first order kinetic model. A 2(3) factorial planning with three central points was performed by considering temperature, catalyst concentration and alcohol/oil molar ratio as dependent variables and biodiesel concentration as response signal. It was observed that the highest conversion was obtained for the following conditions: temperature between 50 and 70 degrees C, high alcohol/oil molar ratio and low percentage of catalyst. All samples were collected during time intervals of 5-10-15-30-60 and 90 min. A set of kinetic constant values were obtained for each operating condition ranging from 72 to 23l min(-1). Indeed, it was possible to obtain the kinetic parameters frequency factor k(0) = 5807.05 dm(3)*mol(-1)*min(-1) and E-a = 16.84 kJ*mol(-1) for biodiesel production with ethanol.