Ultrasonic Reactors for Biodiesel Production

Hielscher makes ultrasonic mixing reactors for the production of biodiesel at any scale. The ultrasonic reactors are compact, easy to install and very efficient. Ultrasonic reactors improve the chemical reaction kinetics. This leads to a faster transesterification, higher conversion yield, and it saves excess methanol and catalyst.

The use of ultrasonic reactors for biodiesel production is recommended for production capacities above 0.25 tons of biodiesel per hour. Hielscher offers ultrasonic reactors with up to 16 tons/hour capacity (5100 gallons/hour) per reactor. You can combine multiple reactors to match your process capacity. You can add additional reactors later when you expand your production capacity. We will be glad to recommend the most suitable biodiesel reactor setup for your plant setup and for your process capacity.

Ultrasonic Biodiesel Reactors Reduce Costs and Boost Biodiesel Yield

Excess methanol and catalyst are significant cost factors in biodiesel production. Hielscher ultrasonic reactors use intense cavitational shear for the mixing of methanol with your feedstock. This gives you much smaller methanol droplets resulting in improved methanol and catalyst utilization. Therefore, less excess methanol and less catalyst are required. In addition to that, the cavitation influences the reaction kinetics, leading to faster and more complete transesterification.

Small and Medium Scale Ultrasonic Biodiesel Reactors

For small and medium size biodiesel production systems of up to 9 tons/hour (2900 gallons/hour), Hielscher offers you the UIP500hdT (500 watts), UIP1000hdT (1000 watts), UIP1500hdT (1500 watts) or UIP2000hdT (2000 watts). These four ultrasonic inline reactors are very compact, easy to integrate or retro-fit. They are built for heavy-duty operation in harsh environments. Below you will find recommended reactor setups for a range of production rates.

Full Scale Industrial Ultrasonic Biodiesel Reactors

For industrial biodiesel production plants Hielscher offers the UIP4000hdT (4000 watts), UIP6000hdT (6000 watts), UIP10000hdT (10000 watts) and UIP16000hdT (16000 watts). These ultrasonic homogenizers with inline reactors are designed for the continuous production of biodiesel at high flow rates. All four ultrasonic homogenizers are available in stainless steel cabinets. The vertical installation requires minimal floor space for installation or retrofitting. Below you find recommended setups for typical industrial processing rates.

Inline Ultrasonic Mixing of Oil and Methanol

Ultrasonic mixing reactors replace tank agitators and other dynamic shear mixers. In general, the ultrasonic biodiesel reactors are installed to mix two feed streams: oil and methanol (with catalyst). For this, a crude pre-mix is pumped through the ultrasonic inline reactor, where the ultrasonic cavitation mixes and emulsifies both reagents within 2 to 10 seconds. This is an inline mixing process. When the mix exits the flow cell reactor, the glycerin will separate by gravity in less than 60 minutes. Alternatively, you can feed the sonicated mix into a centrifuge after a few minutes of reaction time. The inline mixing reduces the number and volume of tanks used compared to conventional batch processing. This improves capital utilization.