EVALUATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF MIXER ROTATION THROUGH COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF A CONTINUOUS STIRRED-TANK REACTOR FOR BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM EXPERIMENTAL KINETIC DATA

Abstract

In the present work, a computer simulation was performed through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for a Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor, starting from experimental data on the kinetics of the transesterification reaction between soybean oil methyl acetate, using an enzyme as a catalyst, the Candida Antartica. A volume was proposed for the reactor so that the average residence time of the reaction mixture was sufficient for the expected yield, based on the data obtained by the Matlab®, was obtained at the exit of the reactor. The simulation of the reactor operation was of a continuous process with constant reagents flow rates made using commercial software ANSYS®. The impeller chosen was of the type inclined straight blades, the simulations were made by varying the rotation speed of the mixer where an increase in reaction yield was observed until the rotation of 120 RPM, above this speed, no real gain was observed in the amount of biodiesel obtained.