Monitoring of Microwave-Assisted Acid-Catalyzed Transesterification for Biodiesel Production Using FT-NIR Spectroscopy with Continuous-Flow Cell

The homogeneous microwave-assisted sulfuric acid-catalyzed transesterification of soybean oil, waste Brazil nut oil, sunflower oil and chicken fat for ethylic and methylic biodiesel production is described herein. The experiments were carried out in pilot-scale multimode reactors. The effects of the alcohol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration and irradiation time on the conversion to biodiesel were investigated. The transesterification reactions were performed at relatively small alcohol to oil molar ratios (9:1, 8:1 and 6:1) affording near 100% of conversion in reaction times of 60 to 120 min. Partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis using FT-NIR spectroscopy was performed to monitor the progress of the acid-catalyzed methanolysis of soybean oil. The NIR spectra were collected during the transesterification reaction with a spectrophotometric continuous-flow cell. 1H NMR spectroscopy was employed to determine the conversion percentage and used as a reference to build the PLS calibration model employing NIR spectroscopy data.