Biodiesel Reaction Screening Using Oscillatory Flow Meso Reactors

Abstract

This paper is concerned with performing laboratory scale alkali-catalyst transesterification for biodiesel reaction and ranking conversion and performance between a stirred tank reactor, and oscillatory flow meso reactors in both batch and continuous mode. The results show that a comparative conversion can be achieved for the same reaction conditions, thereby demonstrating that batch and continuous meso reactor configurations can be used for a high throughput screening biodiesel reactions.

Continuous screening of base-catalysed biodiesel production using New designs of mesoscale oscillatory baffled reactors

“…OBRs have been previously used to study biodiesel production at pilot scale [22] and mesoscale [23]. The results showed that the yield of methyl ester in these reactors was similar to that obtained in batch reactor, but at considerably shorter residence times.…”

“…At these oscillation conditions, vortices are generated and fully developed after each cavity baffles due to the interactions between oscillatory flow and baffles [21]. Zheng et al [23] also found that good mixing and therefore high conversion were achieved high oscillation conditions, i.e. Re o N 107 and St b 0.2.…”

“…the European biodiesel standard, EN14214. Generally, if a conventional bench-scale stirred tank reactor screening of one set of reaction condition takes 40 minutes [23] then, even if, for example, four reaction conditions are screened in parallel in 4 stirred tank reactors, the mesoscale oscillatory baffled reactors can screen through the same four reaction conditions within 10% of the time and produce repeatable results while using significantly lower quantities of reagents. As a result, it significantly reduces waste and operating time.…”

Production of Biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil: A Review

“…An oscillatory motion is superimposed upon the net flow of the process fluid, creating flow patterns conducive for efficient heat and mass transfer, whilst maintaining plug flow regime [52]. In addition, each baffle essentially behaves as a stirred tank that lead to excellent mixing and suspension by creating vortices between orifice baffles and oscillating fluid [53]. Designing a biodiesel reactor especially when heterogeneous catalysts are used due to the presence of three immiscible phases (oil-alcohol-catalyst) at the initial stage of reaction.…”

Prototyping of Meso- and Microfluidic Devices with Embedded TiO2 Photocatalyst for Photodegradation of an Organic Dye

“…Microreactors have channels with hydraulic diameter (DH) between 1 μm and 100 μm, while mesoreactors have DH channels between 100 μm and 1 mm [8]. Several micro-and mesofluidic systems were developed and characterized [12][13][14][15], such as medical diagnostic devices with integrated biosensors [16], circulating tumor cell capture systems [17], gradient concentration generators [18], photocatalytic water purification [19], and organic and inorganic synthetic flow reactors [9]. Despite good results, the main disadvantage of small-scale reactors is the relatively high cost combined with the low output of a single reactor and the unfeasibility of production on a commercial scale [20].…”