Performance of novel dielectric barrier discharge reactor for biodiesel production from palm oil and ethanol

Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kampus UI Depok, Depok 16424, Indonesia

^* Coresponding author: setijo.bismo@ui.ac.id

Abstract

The disadvantages of conventional biodiesel synthesis trigger the birth of new biodiesel synthesis methods using the DBD plasma reactor. The conventional methods with homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts have significant constraints that the formation of glycerol compounds in large enough quantities that require considerable energy. The aim of present experiment is to design DBD non-thermal plasma reactor coaxial pipe type and to do its performance test in converting biodiesel The feed stock used are palm oil, ethanol, and argon gas as plasma carrier. Such a chemical reactor, this plasma reactor is also influenced by reaction kinetics and hydrodynamic factors. From this research, it can be seen that the optimum feed and gas flowrate being operated is 1.64 and 41.67 mL/s. The plasma reactor is used in the form of a quartz glass tube surrounded by a SS-314 spiral coil as an outer electrode. The applied operating conditions are 1 : 1 molar ratio of methanol/oil, ambient temperature of 28 - 30 °C, and pressure 1 bar. From this performance test, it is found that this plasma reactor can be used to synthesize biodiesel from palm oil and methanol without catalyst, no formation of soap, and minimal byproducts.