Wanvisa Chomsiri. Study of preparation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) from vegetable oil by transesterification reaction using gas chromatography. Master's Degree(Applied Analytical and Inorganic Chemistry). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2009.
Study of preparation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) from vegetable oil by transesterification reaction using gas chromatography
Abstract:
In general, biodiesel is fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) which is usually obtained from transesterification of vegetable oil with methanol using acid or base catalyst. This reaction exchanges the alcohol group of triglyceride with methanol to create a mono alkyl ester. Fatty acid (FA) compositions of an individual vegetable oil affect on FAME properties and its production. This research studied preparation of FAMEs from various vegetable oils for biodiesel production and determination of FAMEs in order to explore the FA profiles in vegetable oils.
The optimum procedure for FAMEs preparation was separated into two conditions including one-step and two-step methods. The optimum condition of one-step transesterification of vegetable oils using a base catalyst was performed under low free fatty acid (FFA) content in the vegetable oil (acid value < 1). This condition gave conversion in the range of 80.29-93.97%. The two-step method was introduced for vegetable oils with high FFA contents (acid value > 1). The two-step method of acid-base transesterification gave a high conversion within the range of 74.12-96.62%. The FAME product was investigated by the optimum GC-FID condition, which consists of using split injection (40:1), DB-wax column, He carrier gas (0.5 mL/min), column temperature (210 °C), injector temperature (250 oC) and detector temperature (250 oC). This condition gave a low detection limit level of FAME compounds, in the range of 0.19-0.30 mg/L. This method was applied to determine the FA composition in vegetable oil samples using GC-FID. The percentage conversion evaluated from GC and 1H-NMR techniques showed no significant difference at 95% confidence interval.