Continuous Biodiesel Production using Ultrasound Clamp on Tubular Reactor

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel to replace diesel fuel for diesel engines. It consists of alkyl monoesters of fatty acid from vegetable oil or animal fats and it is an alternative feedstock that can be converted into biodiesel at lower cost. The approach of this production is to use the ultrasound clamp to better enable the immiscible liquids between the vegetable oil and alcohol to emulsify together, hence producing esters in a short period of time. The ultrasound causes the rapid movement of fluid, creating cavitation where the liquids break down and so forming cavitation bubbles. The optimum result for biodiesel production using an ultrasound clamp on the tubular reactor is 3 minutes with 90% conversion of esters, compared to the previous pilot plant unit which achieves 98% ester conversion within 5 minutes. The newly fabricated small pilot plant has proved able to achieve conversion of esters in the presence of a methanol to oil molar ratio of 12:1, catalyst concentration of 1.25 wt% and reaction temperature of 64°C. This pilot plant has been developed in this research to facilitate the transesterification process in producing biodiesel from vegetable oil and has the ability to achieve 90% ester conversion with an ultrasound clamp.