Biodiesel production from soapstock by acid catalyst

산촉매를 이용한 Soapstock으로부터 바이오디젤의 제조

The feasibility of biodiesel production from soapstock by acid catalyst was tested. The water content of soapstock was more than 40%. Before the esterification of soapstock, the pre-treatment of soapstock was conducted adding potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid. The pre-treated soapstock contained 99.6wt% of free fatty acid. When the free fatty acid was esterified with methanol, the fatty acid methyl ester content became 91.7wt% under the solid acid catalyst, Amberlyst-15. When this biodiesel was distilled the methyl ester content was 98.1wt% which satisfied the biodiesel Standard. Amberlyst-15 could be recovered easily because it was the soliid catalyst. When sulfuric acid was used as the acid catalyst, the fatty acid methyl ester content was 91.0wt%. From the results, it was possible to produce biodiesel efficiently from soapstock after pre-treatment. Because soapstock is very cheap, it will become good feedstock for biodiesel product ion.