Using acid oil as raw material, methyl esterification of the first step of the biodiesel preparation in pipeline reactor was studied. The results showed that the pipeline reactor could enhance mass transfer and shorten the reaction time. The optimal reaction conditions in pipeline reactor were determined as follows: with concentrated sulfuric acid as catalyst, catalyst dosage 3% (based on total mass of reactants ),molar ratio of methanol to acid oil 30∶1, reaction temperature 100℃, line speed 15.4 mm/s (the corresponding dwell time 7.24 min).Under these conditions,the acid value of the product reduced to 1.49 mgKOH/g , which met the demand of transesterification of the next step. |