Reactor Designfor Biodiesel Production from Soybean Oil Catalyzed by CaO Nanocatalyst

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel sourced from oil or fat as a substitute for petroleum-based fuels. Biodiesel is a product of the transesterification reaction with the help of a catalyst which serves to speed up the reaction process. Operating parameters used in the biodiesel production process are the operating temperature of 60°C with a pressure of 1 atm and a reaction time of 2 hours with a molar ratio of methanol: oil is 1: 1. The purpose of this study is to design a reactor for the process of biodiesel production using a CaO catalyst. In this study, the reactor design was carried out using the reaction base that had to be carried out by previous researchers with optimized conditions. The results showed that the CSTR design was used as a reactor to react the biodiesel production process with a cooling pad to maintain the temperature because the reaction was exothermic. Based on the design, the CSTR reactor is made of stainless steel with a capacity of 170 m
.The dimensions of the reactor had a diameter of 6 m and a height of 6 m with a head thickness of 0.4 in. The stirrer used is a six-blade disk type with a diameter of 2.35 m. This reactor design is promising and has good potential to be used in biodiesel production with easy control of temperature and low operating costs.