Effect of Multiple Piezo-Transducers on Biodiesel Yield in a Sonochemical Reactor

The development of continuous sonochemical reactors for biodiesel production is a crucial requirement for the biofuel industry. Sonochemical reactors make use of ultrasound and acoustic cavitation to produce biodiesel from feed stocks like vegetable oils and waste cooking oils. Numerical modelling of sonochemical conversion of vegetable oil to biodiesel has been carried out in this work. Cavitation and wave attenuation have also been modelled. The effect of double ultrasound transducer vs a single transducer has been tested for different heights of the reactor. Acoustic pressure and biodiesel mole fraction has been studied. Results for the comparison show that lower heights, the high cavitation from two transducers dampens the acoustic pressures leading to low conversion. However, at taller heights the effect of combined cavitation is less and the acoustic pressure and biodiesel yield are very similar between the designs having single and double transducers.