EFFECT OF MICROTUBE REACTOR INTERNAL DIAMETER ON BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM PALM OIL

Biodiesel, a renewable fuel derived from vegetable oils and animal fats. Batch reactor
was commonly used for fundamental study and industry. Recently several papers
reported that transesterification by using micro or milli-tube reactor as a fundamental
study. Generally, microtube reactor had a higher reaction rate in comparison with
batch reactor at similar reaction condition. However, this research field had not been
investigated thoroughly in terms of tube internal diameter effect from micrometre to
millimetre. This research focused on the effect of internal diameter of micro and
milli-tube reactor and factors influencing the biodiesel production which included
methanol to oil molar ratio, temperature, catalyst concentration, and residence time. In
addition, the geometry of microtube reactor and the comparison between batch and
microtube reactor were also investigated in this research.