- Actually, the CSIR-IIP process is suitable for the conversion of low-cost and high free fatty acids (like PFAD, Acid oil, etc.) using heterogeneous catalysts. In this process, the esterification and transesterification take place in a single step so the by-product glycerine does not contain any FFA and alkali part as compared to the case of homogeneous catalyst-based process.
- Further, for Homogeneous catalysts, low FFA feeds are preferred due to several problems associated with this (a lot of literature is available) but we tried the low FFA feeds like Jatropha or Mahua oil in the same unit with low residence time (less than 5 min) as compared to the conventional process. Further, some existing literature also shows two-step processes for high FFA with homogeneous catalyst but with high residence time.
- The time period in the CSIR-IIP process varies from 1 min to 60 min depending on the FFA content. For Feed having FFA~ 20% it is ~ 20 min and for FFA ~ 80 it is ~ 60 min. Few experiments were also tried for FFA having 1% FFA with the homogeneous catalyst in the same unit and it was found less than 5 min.
