The effect of ultrasound duty cycle in biodiesel production from Ceiba pentandra

This study investigated the effect of the duty cycle for the transesterification of Ceiba pentandra oil. The important parameters of a duty cycle (pulse-mode operation) and energy usage in the transesterification reaction process were presented and showed that a maximum biodiesel yield of 99.24 % was achieved for 75% duty cycle with a pulse combination of 6 sec ON and 2 sec OFF. That was under the optimum conditions of 60% methanol to oil ratio, 1.00 wt% of KOH, reacted for 50 minutes. The obtained biodiesel was then analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy, and physiochemical properties of the Ceiba pentandra biodiesel then determined. It found that all the properties comply with the fuel specifications set by both ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards