Production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil using ultrasonic tubular reactor

The aim of study is to produce the synthesis of biodiesel from waste cooking oil (WCO) using ultrasonic tubular reactor at laboratory scale. The experiment was used to determine the effect of ester contents by reaction time, molar ratio of WCO to Methanol (MeOH), amount of catalyst, frequency of ultrasonic and ultrasonic output power using ultrasonic tubular reactor. Based on the optimum process by ultrasonic tubular reactor, a comparisons study of three different processes (ultrasonic tubular reactor, conventional ultrasonic cleaner and mechanical stirring) were also investigated. The optimum results of biodiesel process using ultrasonic tubular reactor are the reaction time of 5 minute, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) catalyst 1%wt of WCO, molar ratio WCO to MeOH of 1:6, frequency ultrasonic of 20 KHz and ultrasonic output power of 650 Watt. The reaction time was reduced to 12-24 times (minute) compare to mechanical stirring and the ester contents was obtained at 96.54%wt. The ternary phase diagram ultrasonic tubular reactor was to find out the liquid liquid-equilibrium base on WCO- Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) -MeOH. The results show that by increasing the residence time of the whole reactant system within the two-phase zone is good for the reaction transesterification on ultrasonic tubular reactor. The semi continuous ultrasonic tubular reactor for biodiesel process of WCO gave conversion of WCO to FAME of 98%wt with flow rate of 5.56 ml/s. Meanwhile, the pilot plan of biodiesel facilities using mechanical stirring method (capacity of 100 kg WCO/batch) was designed and the transfer knowledge about biodiesel process was a success between the university with industry in Batu Pahat