Separation Process of Biodiesel-Product Mixture from Crude Glycerol and Other Contaminants Using Electrically Driven Separation Technique with AC High Voltage

Electrically driven separation (EDS) technology with a high voltage (HV) alternating current source (AC) was used to remove glycerol and other contaminants from biodiesel in order meet the ASTM D6751 EN 14214 standards. Biodiesel produced transesterification of refined palm oil methanol using sodium methylate as homogeneous catalyst. The effects an Iron (Fe) electrode, including types electrode configurations, vertical distance between electrodes, applied voltage, time, were studied. Furthermore, remaining catalyst soap content phase also investigated improve separating performance EDS technique. HVAC low amperage point-to-point configuration showed highest efficiency 99.8%. optimum electrodes 3 cm, while kV. time 240 s yielded best performance, completely eliminating unreacted catalyst, lowest normalized value obtained. Considering all this, technique had higher than conventional gravitation settling. final product purity 98.0 wt% after purification met standard specifications.