Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
properties [44]. The remedy of this is the two step process which first hydrolyzes the
triglycerides in sub-critical water, then esterifies the fatty acids in supercritical methanol.
Other solvents can be used, and their conditions are listed in Table 18. The main equipment
required for this process are heat exchangers to heat up the feed while cooling down the
product, a tubular reactor, a distillation column and flash evaporator to recover the methanol
and propane, and finally a settler to separate the glycerol and biodiesel.
Table 16. Typical specifications for Mcgyan process [18]
Condition
Value
Range
Alcohol:TAG mole ratio
32.7:1
Reaction temperature
360
℃
Catalyst
Porous metal oxides
Reaction Extent
87.5%
86-95%
Reaction time
56.9 s
5.4-59.0 s
Feedstock
Soybean oil
Any type of feedstock
Figure 18. Process flow diagram of a biodiesel plant based on the Mcgyan process [18].
