Semibatch Bubble Column Reactor Design For Biodiesel Production

Abstract

The application of bubble column reactors are widely spread out due to a number of advantages both in design and operations compared to other reactors. The first one is they have excellent heat and mass transfer characteristic. The second is low cost of operation and maintenance, and the last is high durability of the catalyst. Owing to the wide application area of bubble column reactors, the design and scale up of the reactors, the complexity of hydrodynamic and operational conditions have put on the attention of engineers. The performance of bubble column reactor is proven for transesterification process reported by Joelianingsih et. al.; nevertheless, the conversion and the yield of the product are still low. The reaction operated at atmospheric condition in the absence of catalyst will lead to more economic process for industrial application. Thus, the improvement of reactor design is necessary especially in order to increase the yield and conversion of the product. The bubble column reactor is designed with height to diameter ratio of 5 equipped with vaporizer, superheater and condenser. The material for all the equipments is made of stainless steel (316 SS) except for vaporizer is made of 304 SS. The performance of bubble column reactor for methyl esterification is increased both on the quality and the quantity of the biodiesel product. The analysis on quality of biodiesel showed that the free glycerol contents, monoglycerides, diglycerides, and triglycerides has satisfied both EN 14214 standard and SNI 718:2012. The quantity of the product is improved as showed by higher yield obtained. The future work shall be focused on utilizing various spargers to gain optimum results and also attaining continuous methanol separation setup from end product for recycling.