Biodiesel production performance estimation from simple viscosity measurements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24084/repqj09.233Abstract
In a biodiesel production industry a quick monitorization of the reaction extent achieved in the process it is important. The usual way to determine the reaction yield is to analyze the FAME content in the biodiesel reaction product. Analytic methods used, mainly gas chromatography, require previous sample treatment or tedious calibrations. Recently, less complicated analytic methods (nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared spectrophotometry) have been developed but they require costly equipment and analysis. The aim of this paper is to develop a cheap and fast method in order to quantify the FAME content in the reaction mixture from simple dynamic viscosity measurements and then the transesterification reaction yield. Therefore, experimentally obtained correlations from biodiesel proceeding of several oil feedstocks are presented in order to estimate the biodiesel FAME content from its dynamic viscosity, a fast determination parameter.