Optimizing Different Angles of Venturi in Biodiesel Production Using CFD Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to find the optimal geometry of Venturi for the production of biodiesel by hydrodynamic cavitation. Intensive methods such as hydrodynamic cavitation eliminate the limitation of mass transfer in the transesterification reaction. In this paper, a venturi design was developed to create cavitation in biodiesel production. The most important property of venturi in creating cavitation and retrieving the pressure is the convergence and divergence angles. The four convergence angles of 22°, 20°, 17°, and 15° and four divergence angles of 12°, 10°, 7° and 5° in Gambit 2.4 software were designed and evaluated with Fluent 6.3 software and their CFD was analyzed. The maximum pressure recovery (85% of input pressure) and cavitation generation was for venturi 17-10 (Convergence angle 17° and divergence angle 10°), which was used in the experimental setup of biodiesel production. The biodiesel production efficiency with this venturi was 95.6%. The FTIR spectrum of the biodiesel was taken to confirm its purity.