Kinetics of esterification of acidified oil with different alcohols by a cation ion-exchange resin/polyethersulfone hybrid catalytic membrane.

Hybrid catalytic membranes consisting of cation ion-exchange resin particles (CERP) and polyethersulfone (PES) were prepared by immersion phase inversion and used as heterogeneous catalysts for the esterification of acidified oil with methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol. The membranes were characterized by ion exchange capacity and swelling degree tests. The membranes were annealed at different temperatures to improve catalytic activity and membranes annealed at 393 K had the highest catalytic activity. Butanol allowed the highest free fatty acids (FFAs) conversion of 95.28% since it has better miscibility than the other alcohols which strengthened mass and heat transfer. Furthermore, pseudo-homogeneous kinetic models of the esterification of acidified oil with the four alcohols were established according to the experimental data. The kinetic models can well predict the FFA conversion.