Time reducing process for biofuel production from non edible oil assisted by ultrasonication

• Ultrasounds help improve the liquid–liquid interfacial area through emulsification.
• Ultrasonic cavitations is a unique way to put energy into chemical reactions.
• The ultrasound wave accelerates rate of reaction for biodiesel production.
• Quantitative HPLC technique was used to analyze the purity and conversion.
• The present system includes operational simplicity, and high conversion.

Limited resources of conventional fuels such as petrodiesel have led to the search for alternative fuels. Various convention batch/continuous processes for the biodiesel production have been developed before the recent year. All processes are time consuming with high labor cost. Thus, we need a new process for biodiesel production which reduces the reaction time and production cost as well as save the energy. In this work, ultrasonic assisted transesterification of Jatrophacurcas oil is carried out in the presence of methanol and potassium hydroxide (KOH) as catalyst, keeping the molar ratio of oil to alcohol 1:5, catalyst concentration 0.75 wt% of oil, ultrasonic amplitude 50% and pulse 0.3 cycle, 7 min reaction time under atmospheric condition. Ultrasonic mixing has increased the rate of transesterification reaction as compare to the mechanical mixing.