Currently the major challenge of biodiesel application as a replacement to petrodiesel is its industrial production sustainability.Consequently, the successful scale-up of laboratory results in transesterification requires so much information obtained through chemical kinetics.This paper presents the kinetics and thermodynamic study of alkali-homogeneous irreversible methanolysis of seed oil derived from African pear. The transesterification process was carried out from 0-100 minutes at temperature range of 55-65°C. The reaction mixture compositions were ascertained using gas chromatography- flame ionization detector (GC-FID) technique. Rate constants of the triglyceride (Tg), diglycerides (Dg) and monoglycerides(Mg) hydrolysis were in the range of 0.0140- 0.07810 wt%/min and increased with increase in temperature. The rate of reaction was found to increase with increase in temperature. Activation energies were found to be 6.14, 20.01 and 28.5kcal/mol at 55, 60 and 65oC respectively. Tg hydrolysis to Dg was observed asthe rate determining step while the reaction agreed with second order principles. A biodiesel yield of 93.02% was obtained with cloud point of 10°C , flash point of 125°C , pour point of 4°C , calorific value of 34.4MJ/kg, and cetane number of 54.90 which satisfy EN14214 and ASTM D 6751 standards. Results presented in this report would serve as idealized conditions for industrial scale up of biodiesel production from African pear seed oil. Keywords:Kinetics; methanolysis; rate constants; activation energy; African pear seed oil; biodiesel
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