4. Conclusion
A fixed-bed membrane reactor packed with PTSA/MCM-41 catalyst
was successfully employed for biodiesel production, in which
solid acid catalyzed transesterification and membrane separation
were integrated to obtain high quality biodiesel. Reaction temperature,
catalyst amount and circulation velocity were found to be
significant to the process according to the analysis of RSM based
on Box–Behnken design. The highest biodiesel yield of 84.1% was
obtained at 80 C of reaction temperature, 0.27 g/mL of catalyst
amount and 4.15 mL/min of circulation velocity with a trans-membrane
pressure of 80 kPa