TY - JOUR AB - Tall oil fatty acids are a byproduct of the paper industry and consist predominantly of free-fatty acids (FFAs). Although this feedstock is ideal for biodiesel production, there has been relatively little study of its conversion to biodiesel. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the high temperature reaction of methanol with tall oil at subcritical and supercritical pressures to produce fatty acid methyl esters. This study investigates the effects of mixing, pressure, temperature, and methanol to oil molecular ratio in order to determine the potential use of tall oil as a biodiesel feedstock. In this work, tall oil fatty acids were successfully reacted with supercritical and subcritical methanol in a continuous tubular reactor, resulting in a reaction that is primarily temperature dependent. Conversions at subcritical pressures of 4.2 MPa and 6.6 MPa were 81% and 75%, respectively. Pressure seemed to have little correlation to conversion in both regimes, and conversions were comparable between the two. Additionally, it was found that tall oil fatty acids react well with methanol to give comparable conversions at the relatively low molecular flow ratio of 5: 1 methanol to tall oil. Both of these observations suggest that hydrolyzed triglycerides or free fatty acid feedstocks would make the primary high temperature biodiesel reaction and the subsequent separation and purification operations less expensive than was previously believed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. AD - Univ Arkansas, Bell Engn Ctr 3202, Ralph E Martin Dept Chem Engn, Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA AN - WOS:000295734200007 AU - White, K. AU - Lorenz, N. AU - Potts, T. AU - Penney, W. R. AU - Babcock, R. AU - Hardison, A. AU - Canuel, E. A. AU - Hestekin, J. A. DA - Nov DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2011.06.017 IS - 11 J2 - Fuel KW - biodiesel LA - English N1 - 831md PY - 2011 SN - 0016-2361 SP - 3193-3199 ST - Production of biodiesel fuel from tall oil fatty acids via high temperature methanol reaction T2 - Fuel TI - Production of biodiesel fuel from tall oil fatty acids via high temperature methanol reaction UR - ://WOS:000295734200007 VL - 90 ID - 7139 ER -