Improvement of the performance of encapsulated CaO and active carbon powders for rapeseed oil methanolysis to fatty acid methyl esters under condensed light irradiation

The performance of capsulated CaO and active carbon powders for rapeseed oil methanolysis to obtain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) under light irradiation was improved by inserting a condenser lens between the reactor and light source. Capsule breakage was greatly increased by the condenser lens because the lens increased the temperature inside the capsule dramatically. Consequently, a low FAME yield of 46.9% was obtained with the CaO (100mg/mL)-active carbon (2.0mg/mL)-loaded capsules after 6h. Therefore, the effect of the irradiation power and active carbon loading on the final FAME yield was investigated. Decreasing the active carbon loadings from 2.0 to 0.1mg/mL reduced the capsule breakage, which affected the final FAME yields. The decrease in the irradiation power from 3.6 to 0.6W also affected the capsule breakage. An active carbon loading of 0.5mg/mL and an irradiation power of 3.6W gave the highest FAME yield (90%) after 6h at 308K. Under these conditions, the FAME phase only contained 0.37% Ca from the charged CaO catalyst with a capsule breakage of 53%.