Study on transesterification of rape oil with high erucic acid to prepare biodiesel and erucicacid methyl ester by hydrodynamic cavitation

A kind hydrodynamic cavitation equipment was designed and the base-catalyst transesterification of rape oil with high erucic acid to prepare biodiesel (BD) and erucic acid methyl ester was investigated. It is found that with the help of hydrodynamic cavitation the reaction time is much shorter than that of conventional mechanical agitation. It can be shortened from 60 minutes to 30 minutes at the reaction temperature 60°C with methanol-oil molar ratio 6:1 and KOH 1.0%. Meanwhile, the reaction conversion is also improved from 94% to 99%. Furthermore, hydrodynamic cavitation is very important to emulsifing immiscible methanol-oil system in order to improve its higher reaction velocity. Through experiments high quality biodiesel (BD) and high value erucic acid methyl ester are gained by vacuum distillation from rape oil with high erucic acid. It can provide a new idea for lower production costs to develope rape oil biodiesel in our country.