Performance comparison of multifunctional reactors for biodiesel production from transesterification of palm oil

Abstract

Biodiesel is classified as a qualified alternative energy that can be used for diesel engine. It is produced via transesterification of vegetable oil with alcohol in presence of homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst. However, oil and alcohol are not totally miscible leading to slow reaction rate. Multifunctional reactors, especially cavitational reactors, are proposed to overcome this issue. The cavitational reactors include ultrasonic reactor and homogenizer reactor. In this work, ultrasonic reactor, homogenizer reactor and conventional magnetic stirred reactor were used to investigate and compare biodiesel yield and the efficiency in terms of biodiesel yield based on the energy consumption at different values of reaction mixture volume using refined palm oil and methanol as the feedstocks at a methanol to oil molar ratio of 6:1 for homogeneous catalyst (NaOH) and a methanol to oil molar ratio of 9:1 for heterogeneous catalyst (CaO) at reaction temperature of 60oC. The combination of ultrasonic and microwave irradiation was performed to increase mass and heat transfers for transesterification of palm oil.