Ultrasound-assisted biodiesel production from Camelina sativa oil

• Camelina sativa oil presents suitable chemical composition for biodiesel production.
• US leads to higher conversion, reduced reaction time and glyceride concentration.
• Stirring and heating cycles between sonication cycles improves FAME yield.
• US-aided transesterification consumes less energy for biodiesel synthesis.

The main drawbacks of biodiesel production are high reaction temperatures, stirring and time. These could be alleviated by aiding transesterification with alternative energy sources, i.e. ultrasound (US). In this study, biodiesel was obtained from Camelina sativa oil, aided with an ultrasonic probe (20 kHz, 70% duty cycle, 50% amplitude). Design of experiments included the combination of sonication and agitation cycles, w/wo heating (50 °C). To gain knowledge about the implications of the proposed methodology, conventional transesterification was optimized, resulting in higher needs on catalyst concentration and reaction time, compared to the proposed reaction. Although FAME content met EN 14103 standard, FAME yields were lower than those provided by US-assisted transesterification. Energy consumption measurements showed that ultrasound assisted transesterification required lower energy, temperature, catalyst and reaction time.