The evaluation of various kinetic models for base-catalyzed ethanolysis of palm oil

► Palm oil ethanolysis yielded 97.5±0.5% ethyl esters at 25–55°C. ► Temperature of the ethanolysis is inversely proportional to the reaction time. ► Palm oil ethanolysis below 45°C conforms to irreversible second order kinetic model. ► Reaction at 55°C conforms to both pseudo first and irreversible second kinetic orders. ► The rate constants, 0.018–0.088dm3/molmin and Ea, 42.36kJ/mol were obtained. In this paper, the kinetics of palm oil ethanolysis with various models have been investigated in a temperature range of 25–55°C. The highest yield was achieved when the conversion to ethyl ester was 97.5±0.5% in the stated temperature range, using ethanol:oil molar ratio of 12:1, and 1.0wt.% sodium ethoxide. The level of conformity of the reaction with reversible second order, irreversible second order and first order kinetic models were evaluated by means of the R2 values of the linear curves. The ethanolysis showed the best conformity with irreversible second order kinetic model with 92–98% level of confidence. The reaction rate constants were within 0.018–0.088dm3/molmin and the activation energy of the reaction was 42.36kJ/mol.