Use of experimental design to investigate biodiesel production by multiple-stage Ultra-Shear reactor

This work presents biodiesel production from soybean oil and bioethanol by multiple-stage Ultra-Shear reactor (USR). The experiments were carried out in the following conditions: reaction time from 6 to 12 min; catalyst concentration from 0.5% to 1.5% by weight of soybean oil; ethanol: soybean oil molar ratio from 6:1 to 10:1. The experimental design was used to investigate the influence of process variables on the conversion in biodiesel. The best ethyl ester conversion obtained was 99.26 wt.%, with ethanol:soybean oil molar ratio of 6:1, catalyst concentration of 1.35% and with 12 min of reaction time.