Abstract:
The esterification of coconut oil fatty acid with 10% v/v ethanol solution was carried out batch wisely at 50 ℃ C to investigate the effects of residence time, fatty acid to the ethanol solution ratio, and sulfuric acid to the ethanol solution reactant ratio, respectively, on conversion of fatty acid to fatty acid ethyl esters. For residence time less than 2 hrs, the conversion of fatty acid with extremely excess of ethanol was improved significantly with increase in residence time. However, the conversion was slightly increased as extending residence time beyond 2 hrs. For 2 hrs residence time, the reaction could be improved by decreasing the fatty acid to the ethanol solution ratio and increasing sulfuric acid to the ethanol solution ratio. The optimum fatty acid to the ethanol solution ratio and sulfuric acid to the ethanol solution ratio were 2.4 and 1 %wt, respectively. The maximum conversion of fatty acid was 15.9 %mol.