A comparative study of ultrasound and infrared transesterification of Sterculia foetida oil for biodiesel production

In this study, biodiesel production using ultrasound and infrared techniques is introduced. The ultrasound and infrared techniques are more efficient for biodiesel production since they improve the mass transfer between the immiscible reactants, increase chemical reactions, and decrease the reaction time and energy consumption. The effect of the reaction time on the acid value of the esterified Sterculia feotida oil is also investigated and it is found that the acid value is 0.76 and 0.85 mg KOH/g for the ultrasound and infrared technique, respectively, at a reaction time of 60 min. In addition, it is found that the biodiesel yield obtained from the ultrasound technique is higher (99.41%) compared to the infrared technique (98.55%) at a reaction time of 60 min. The KOH catalyst is analyzed for both of these techniques and it is found that the ultrasound technique gives faster absorbed reaction compared to the infrared technique. Hence, it can be concluded that the ultrasound and infrared transesterification techniques are promising techniques for biodiesel production.