THE EFFICIENT BIODIESEL PRODUCTION IN THE NON-CONVENTIONAL REACTORS

Abstract

This dissertation proposed the biodiesel production from non-conventional reactors, ultrasonic assisted reactor and microwave reactor which mainly divided into 4 parts i) study of the possibility use of ultrasonic assisted reactor for biodiesel production in a batch mode ii) study efficiency and optimization of ultrasonic assisted reactor for biodiesel production in a continuous mode iii) study system for biodiesel production by high shear mixer integrated with microwave reactor iv) study of the possibility use of microwave reactor for biodiesel production in a continuous mode. For the first part, the results show that ultrasonic assisted reactor provides high biodiesel yield in a relatively short reaction time compared with the conventional reactor. Moreover, this reactor also promotes the heterogeneously catalyzed transesterification by hindering the catalyst deactivation. The experimental results from the second part indicates that the designed reactor can produce high biodiesel yield in only 5 min of reaction time compared with 60 min was required from the conventional reactor. Since this reactor can increase the initial rate of reaction. Moreover, the properties of obtained biodiesel also conform to the ASTM standard. In case of the third part, the results show that the application of high shear mixer integrated with microwave reactor can simultaneously enhance both mass transfer and heat transfer. This provides the complete conversion within only 5 min of reaction time. In addition, this system only requires around half the energy use for the conventional system. The high yield of biodiesel following ASTM and EN standard requirements can be also obtained within only 4 min of reaction time from the last part. The activation energy has been calculated and it was found that microwave heating provides a lower 10 times of activation energy than that of the conventional process. Furthermore, the energy requirement for biodiesel production was also lower 10 times than the conventional process.