Transesterification of Sunflower Oil in the Presence of the Cosolvent Assisted by Hydrodynamic Cavitation

Combination of chemical treatment by cosolvent with hydrodynamic cavitation is a novel technique of intensification of alkali-catalyzed transesterification of sunflower oil with methanol. The paper investigated the effect of operating parameters such as reaction mixture inlet pressure (p(1)), methanol to oil molar ratio (M-1), the concentration of catalyst (C-c), methanol to tetrahydrofuran (THF) molar ratio (M-2), temperature (T), and a number of passes through the hydrodynamic cavitation reactor (n) of transesterification of sunflower oil in the presence of the cosolvent assisted by hydrodynamic cavitation (ACTC) on the triglyceride conversion (TC). ACTC was performed by a venturi-type cavitation reactor (VCR) of a given design. The effect of the operational parameters on the TC was investigated by the method of independent variation of the value of one operating parameter. The obtained results indicated that (a) at p(1) >= 304.0 kPa TC increased from TC = 0 to TC = 98% following the rise in p(1); (b) maximum TC = 95% was achieved at M-1 = 3; (c) rise in M-1 within range 3 <= M-1 <= 9 led to a linear increase from TC = 95 to TC = 100%; (d) maximum TC = 95% was achieved at 1.0%wt <= C-c >= 1.1%wt; (e) maximum TC = 99% was achieved at M-2 = 1.5; (f) TC linearly decreased from TC = 95 to TC = 88% with T rise from T = 20 to T = 55 degrees C; (g) the rise in n resulted in a linear increase of TC from TC = 94 (n = 1) to TC = 99% (n = 10); and (h) cavitation yield (CY) declines from CY = 0.528 (n = 1) to CY = 0.056 g/J (n = 10).