Development of Integrated Catalytic Membrane-Based Unit for Biofuel Production

Flow-through catalytic membrane system for ester production is one of the competitive alternatives to the conventional esterification system. This article presents the development of an integrated reaction/regeneration unit that was established to study the reaction followed by the regeneration step using two consecutive membrane reactor units working alternately. The hypothesis led to continuous ester production with a relatively high average conversion. The esterification reaction conversion of ethylhexanoic acid with ethanol and acetic acid with ethanol using catalytic membrane reactor reached up to 97.7% and 96%, respectively at room temperature after a reaction time of 10 sec, then slowly decreased; this is attributed to the decrease of catalytic membrane efficiency due to water adsorption on active functional groups, making a regeneration step mandatory. The developed unit was used to produce biofuel/biodiesel by esterification of acetic acid and fatty acid with ethanol.