Influence of gas-liquid mass transfer on kinetic modeling: carbonation of epoxidized vegetable oils

Fossil depletion and global warming have pushed industrial and academic communities to rethink the present way of consumption by diminishing waste and by using renewable raw materials. For this reason, several research programs are focused on the valorization of biomass and carbon dioxide. To promote the use of these feedstocks in industrial scale, kinetic and thermodynamic data are needed for a better energy integration and cost optimization. Industrial production of methanol, urea and inorganic carbonate from carbon dioxide should be used as examples. A kinetic model including mass transfer phenomena for the carbonation of epoxidized cottonseed oil was proposed. We observed that the absorption rate of CO2 increases in the following order: cottonseed oil (CSO)> epoxidized cottonseed oil (ECSO)> carbonated cottonseed oil (CCSO), which was confirmed by our model. For liquid temperature exceeding 120 °C, the Henry’s coefficients increase in the following order: HeCCSO > HeCSO ⩾ HeECSO. Kinetic experiments were conducted at different temperatures (110–140 °C), catalyst tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBABr) concentrations (0.06–0.30 mol/L), epoxidized group concentrations (1.67–3.80 mol/L) and CO2 pressure (21.1–49.7 bar). The kinetic parameters identified by nonlinear regression fit the experimental data well.