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Batch and Continuous Ultrasonic Reactors for the Production of Methyl Esters from Vegetable Oils

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Production of Biofuels and Chemicals with Ultrasound

Part of the book series: Biofuels and Biorefineries ((BIOBIO,volume 4))

Abstract

Mass transfer is a rate limiting step in biodiesel production. Ultrasound can accelerate tremendously the mass transfer in both triglycerides transesterification and free fatty acid esterification by finely emulsifying reagents that are poorly miscible. We describe reactor configurations for both transesterification and esterification, with emphasis on the work published by the authors. Ultrasound in the esterification increases the mass transfer in raw oils at temperatures below 40 °C. The Eley–Rideal kinetic model of the esterification including the mass transfer resistance between the phases is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. The Rosett cell reactor combines acoustic cavitation and turbulence and transesterifies 90 % of the feedstock in 5 min, whereas it takes 90 min in a conventional batch reactor. Continuous and semi-continuous tubular reactors irradiated at a power density of 40 kW/cm3 converts 90 % of the oil in 10 min. A Sonitube® (Synetude) converts 90 % of the oil after a single passage in a continuous reactor. This corresponds to 18 s and a rate 300 times faster than the conventional process. Sonitube ® improves mass transfer substantially and is worthy of scaling up.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge */SYNETUDE/* Company (Parc d’activités de Côte Rousse, 180 rue du Genevois, 73,000 Chambery, France), for providing the ultrasound horns and Sonitube® devices.

The authors would like to thank Fonds de recherche du Québec—Nature et technologies (FRQNT) for the Programmes de bourses d’excellence pour étudiants étrangers (PBEEE) granted to Daria C. Boffito.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polytechnique Montréal—Département de Génie Chimique, 2900 Édouard-Montpetit, 2500 Chemin Polytechnique, H3T 1J4, Montreal, Canada

    D. C. Boffito & G. S. Patience

  2. University of Savoie, LCME/CISM, 73376, Le Bourget du Lac Cedex, France

    J.-M. Leveque

  3. Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750, Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia

    J.-M. Leveque

  4. Università Degli Studi Di Milano—Dipartimento Di Chimica, via Golgi 19, 20133, Milan, Italy

    C. Pirola & C. L. Bianchi

  5. Synetude, P.a. de Côte Rousse 180, Rue du Genevois, 73000, Chambery, France

    R. Vibert & A. Perrier

Authors
  1. D. C. Boffito
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  2. J.-M. Leveque
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  3. C. Pirola
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  4. C. L. Bianchi
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  5. R. Vibert
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  6. A. Perrier
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  7. G. S. Patience
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. C. Boffito .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China

    Zhen Fang

  2. Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Richard L. Smith, Jr.

  3. Nankai University, Tianjin, China

    Xinhua Qi

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Boffito, D.C. et al. (2015). Batch and Continuous Ultrasonic Reactors for the Production of Methyl Esters from Vegetable Oils. In: Fang, Z., Smith, Jr., R., Qi, X. (eds) Production of Biofuels and Chemicals with Ultrasound. Biofuels and Biorefineries, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9624-8_3

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