Intensified production of biodiesel using a spinning disk reactor

•Continuous transesterification of soybean oil and methanol was examined in an SDR.•Optimal yield of 96.9% was obtained with a residence time of 3–4 s in the SDR.•Compared to other reactors, the SDR achieves a high yield and production rate.

This work achieves continuous transesterification of soybean oil and methanol in a spinning disk reactor. The effects of the methanol-to-oil molar ratio, catalyst type, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, flow rate, and rotational speed were investigated. Optimal yield of 96.9% was obtained with a residence time of 2–3 s at a molar ratio of 6, potassium hydroxide concentration of 1.5 wt%, temperature of 60 °C, flow rate of 773 mL/min, and rotational speed of 2400 rpm. The production rate of 1.86 mol/min was high compared to that of other reactors for continuous transesterification process, indicating that a spinning disk reactor is a promising alternative method for continuous biodiesel production.