The adsorption removal of water in the esterification of waste coconut oil with alcohol was evaluated experimentally.
The use of a raw material of high acidity in the esterification reaction enabled the processing of the waste generated in the refining of coconut oil.
As presented in this study, it is important to search procedures to obtain higher conversion values when oil with high acidity is used, since the usual method of biodiesel production (the transesterification reaction of vegetable oils) is not feasible with high acidity materials.
The experimental results presented lower alcohol : oil molar ratios in the reaction medium when compared to systems without water removal by adsorption.
In this study, an alcohol excess of 200% using adsorption in zeolite3A yielded higher conversion values than when using 800% of alcohol excess in a system without water adsorption.
This can be very in teresting for possible commercial usage of esterification of highly acidic waste oils in the biodiesel industry.