Estudio de las Variables de Reacción de la Transesterificación Asistida por Microondas

Abstract

Microwave radiation is a source of non-conventional energy that is being used for a large number of chemical reactions, ensuring that these can be accelerated under microwave irradiation conditions.
Due to that the transesterification reaction contains both polar and ionic components, the microwave heating is comparing favorably with conventional methods. In this paper we study the effects of microwave irradiation on the synthesis of
biodiesel with cottonseed oil and methanol, using sodium hydroxide as catalyst. We have found, using laboratory trials at the same conditions that in the conventional heating method it is possible achieve the same yields or even higher, than using irradiation microwaves as energy source, with the advantage of a considerable reduction of the reaction time.