Abstract
Intensification of biodiesel production process using low frequency ultrasonic irradiation (20kHz, 200W) is elucidated in this study. Effects of five process variables in an ultrasonic-assisted reactor catalyzed by SrO through transesterification of vegetable oils are investigated. RSM was employed and the optimum conditions were at an ultrasonic pulse on of 9s followed by 2s of pulse off within a reaction time of 30.7min. The optimum ultrasonic power was found to be 130W using an oil amount of 52g (R2=0.97). The model was applicable to different types of oil with errors less than 10%. FFA content was responsible for the different yields obtained with different oils. Three steps of the transesterification process were measured to obtain the kinetic study. The results revealed that the reaction followed a second-order kinetic. The activation energies varied between 70.63kJ/mol and 136.93kJ/mol showing relatively high coefficient of determinations.
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