Three-dimensional reaction-convection-diffusion analysis with temperature influence for biodiesel synthesis in micro-reactors

Hybrid Approach in Microscale Transport Phenomena: Application to Biodiesel Synthesis in Micro-reactors

“…The findings presented are part of an ongoing collaborative research aiming to improve the design of the microreactors recently demonstrated for biodiesel synthesis [66], targeting residence times of around one minute or less. For this purpose, the hybrid approach has been employed throughout the development and design of this microfluidic system [67][68][69][70][71], then validated through experimental tests employing high speed and thermal imaging infrared cameras [72]. Advanced additive micro-manufacturing platforms were also used to propose a more economical fabrication of multiple microreactors to assemble a modular prototype [72].…”

“…Thus, the computational simulation is an important tool that helps to understand the physical-chemical phenomenon and, consequently, to determine the suitable conditions that maximize the conversion of triglycerides during the biodiesel synthesis. The mathematical model is obtained through a steady-state mass balance that considers diffusive-convectivereactive effects to describe the transesterification route for biodiesel synthesis in a microreactor of rectangular section [67][68][69][70][71][72], as represented in Figure 3. The dimensionless mass transfer equations for the species concentrations, considering second order consecutive elementary and reversible reactions preferably in the triglyceride phase, under isothermal conditions and with constant physical properties, can be written as:…”

Mixing in flows past confined microfluidic cylinders: Effects of pin and fluid interface offsetting

“…A typical example is when dealing with different molar ratio and/or flow rate of reactants, as in biodiesel synthesis in microreactors [24,25]. In accordance with the standard ASTM D6751-15 [26], biodiesel is made up by mono-alkyl esters of longchain fatty acids fuel, derived from vegetable oils and/or animal fats, commonly produced via transesterification reaction.…”

Innovative Metallic Microfluidic Device for Intensified Biodiesel Production

“…Although the reaction usually occurs with a molar excess of alcohol in relation to oil, it is expected that the micro reactor is occupied mainly by the oil phase due to its higher molar mass when compared to the alcohol. Using the ratio between the two volumetric flow rates, QA/QTG, an implicit equation appears allowing the calculation of the HTG (see Pontes et al 56 for details). To determine the hydrodynamic parameters the following sequence of steps was adopted:…”