Application of Box-Behnken Design in Monoglycerides Production Via Glycerolysis of Palm Oil Using Homogenizer Reactor

The glycerolysis of triglycerides (TG) to produce monoglycerides (MG) is an important pathway for glycerol valorization. However, mass transfer resistance has significantly hindered the process efficiency because the reaction is a two-phase liquid-liquid reaction. In this study, a homogenizer was used as a high shear mixing reactor (HSM) to address such issue of mass transfer resistance, and was compared to a conventional mechanically stirred reactor (MS). The effects of the rotational speed, catalyst amount, molar ratio of Gly-to-TG, reaction temperature and reaction time on MG yield were investigated using NaOH as a homogeneous catalyst. Three reaction variables were investigated by statistical analysis using the Box-Behnken (BBK) experimental design, including Gly-to-TG molar ratio (2:1–4:1), catalyst loading (0.1–0.3 wt% TG), and reaction time (15–45 min). The results indicated that the predicted maximum MG yield of 63.4 % was achieved at a reaction time of 29 min, a Gly-to-TG molar ratio of 2.7:1, and a catalyst loading of 0.274 wt% of TG, which agreed with the experimental results. The yield efficiency of HSM was 1.27×10−4 g/J, which was 9.14-fold higher than that of MS at 1.39×10−5 g/J.