Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.51, No.30, 10201-10206, 2012
Product Separation after Chemical Interesterification of Vegetable Oils with Methyl Acetate. Part II: Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium
The aim of this work was the removal of diacetin, monoacetin, and glycerol from biodiesel-triacetin mixtures using liquid-liquid extraction with water. Liquid-liquid equilibrium was predicted using UNIFAC based models for the activity coefficient calculations. These data have been corroborated with experimental information from all possible binary, ternary (water, triacetin, and biodiesel), and overall (diacetin, monoacetin, glycerol, water, triacetin, and biodiesel) mixtures. The experimental determination of the diacetin, monoacetin, and glycerol distribution factor and their selectivity with respect to triacetin allows the operating temperature set at 27.5 degrees C. After that, it was determined that three washing steps, with a water to feed mixture mass ratio of 0.05 (per stage), were necessary for the effective elimination of these compounds. The final composition of the raffinate phase was 94.6 wt % biodiesel and 5.1 wt % triacetin. The extract phase consisted of a mixture of 59.2 wt % acetins and glycerol and 40.7 wt % water.