The solid acid esterification technology is to use solid acid as catalyst to catalyze the reaction of fatty acid and methanol to produce fatty acid methyl ester.
Fatty acid methyl ester is an important chemical raw material, widely used in the synthesis of advanced surfactants, used as an additive for high grade lubricating oil and fuel and a solvent for emulsifier products, perfume . Saturated fatty acid methyl ester can be hydrogenated to fatty alcohols and used in surfactant industry; unsaturated fatty acid methyl ester can be processed into epoxy fatty acid methyl ester, used in the field of plasticizer.
The main source of fatty acid methyl ester is from Transesterification of animal and vegetable oils or methylation of fatty acids . At present, most of the esterification production in China adopts the classic concentrated sulfuric acid catalysis process, this process is clearance reaction, with many side reactions, deep color, complicated post-treatment s and with much three wastes.
1，Adaptable raw material
Any of various fatty acids, methanol or ethanol.
2 ，Physicochemical properties of catalysts
Name | Analysis result |
Appearance | Gray spherical particle |
Apparent density g/m3 | 0.7-0.9 |
Grain size， mm | 0.3-1.25 |
Bore diameter，Å | 200-500 |
BET，m2/g | 30-60 |
Pore volume，ml/g | 0.30-0.45 |
3 ，Process conditions
Item | Index |
Reaction temperature℃ | 105-110 |
Reaction pressure，MPa（g） | <0.1 |
Mass S V，h-1 | 0.2-0.5 |
Alcohol /acid | 1：1 |
4， Echnical flow diagram
5，Process characteristics
Solid acid catalyst adapted, don’t corrode equipment, low equipment requirements, less investment; simple process, less waste; adopting catalytic distillation process, it has high conversion rate, few by-products and high selectivity.