A rotor-stator spinning disk reactor for intensified biodiesel synthesis is described and numerically simulated in the present research. The reactor consists of two flat disks, located coaxially and parallel to each other with a gap ranging from 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm between the disks. The upper disk is located on a rotating shaft while the lower disk is stationary. The feed liquids, triglycerides (TG) and methanol are injected into the reactor from centres of rotating disk and stationary disk, respectively. Fluid hydrodynamics in the reactor for synthesis of biodiesel from TG and methanol in the presence of a sodium hydroxide catalyst are simulated, using convection-diffusion-reaction multicomponent transport model with the CFD software ANSYS©Fluent v. 13.0. Effect of operating conditions on TG conversion is particularly investigated. Simulation results indicate that there is occurrence of back flow close to the stator at the outlet zone. Small gap size and fast rotational speed generally help to intensify mixing among reagents, and consequently enhance TG conversion. However, increasing rotational speed of spinning disk leads to more backflow, which decreases TG conversion. Large flow rate of TG at inlet is not recommended as well because of the short mean residence time of reactants inside the reactor.

In this paper a two-disc spinning disc reactor for intensified biodiesel synthesis is described and numerically simulated. The reactor consists of two flat discs, located coaxially and parallel to each other with a gap of 0.2 mm between the discs. The upper disc is located on a rotating shaft while the lower disc is stationary. The feed liquids, triglycerides (TG) and methanol are introduced coaxially along the centre line of rotating disc and stationary disc. Fluid hydrodynamics in the reactor for synthesis of biodiesel from TG and methanol in the presence of a sodium hydroxide catalyst are simulated, using convection-diffusion-reaction species transport model by the CFD software ANSYS©Fluent v. 13.0. The effect of the upper disc’s spinning speed is evaluated. The results show that the rotational speed increase causes an increase of TG conversion despite the fact that the residence time decreases. Compared to data obtained from adequate experiments, the model shows a satisfactory agreement.

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of adding bio-components in the form of methyl esters of corn oil to the milesPLUS diesel oil on its fractional composition. The corn biofuel was produced in-house by using an own-design GW-200 reactor. The diesel fuel evaporated at temperatures ranging from 162 to 352oC. The addition of 7, 20 and 40% of a bio-component in principle does not affect the deterioration of the starting point distillation temperatures. They affect the temperature at the end of distillation to a greater extent, resulting in temperatures exceeding 360oC.

It has been found that the vegetable oils are promising substitute, because of their properties are similar to those of diesel fuel and they are renewable and can be easily produced. However, drawbacks associated with crude vegetable oils are high viscosity, low volatility call for low heat rejection combustion chamber, with its significance characteristics of higher operating temperature, maximum heat release, and ability to handle lower calorific value (CV) fuel etc. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of an engine consisting of different low heat rejection (LHR) combustion chambers such as ceramic coated cylinder head-LHR-1, air gap insulated piston with superni (an alloy of nickel) crown and air gap insulated liner with superni insert - LHR-2; and ceramic coated cylinder head, air gap insulated piston and air gap insulated liner - LHR-3 with normal temperature condition of crude rice bran oil (CRBO) with varied injector opening pressure. Performance parameters (brake thermal efficiency, brake specific energy consumption, exhaust gas temperature, coolant load, and volumetric efficiency) and exhaust emissions [smoke levels and oxides of nitrogen [NOx]] were determined at various values of brake mean effective pressure of the engine. Combustion characteristics [peak pressure, time of occurrence of peak pressure, maximum rate of pressure rise] were determined at full load operation of the engine. Conventional engine (CE) showed compatible performance and LHR combustion chambers showed improved performance at recommended injection timing of 27°bTDC and recommend injector opening pressure of 190 bar with CRBO operation, when compared with CE with pure diesel operation. Peak brake thermal efficiencyincreased relatively by 7%, brake specific energy consumption at full load operation decreased relatively by 3.5%, smoke levels at full load decreased relatively by 11% and NOx levels increased relatively by 58% with LHR-3 combustion chamber with CRBO at an injector opening pressure of 190 bar when compared with pure diesel operation on CE.

The study of the possibility of removing organic compounds from wastewater originating from the biodiesel purification stage by two catalytic processes, HSO5-/transition metal and Fenton method has been presented. The source of the ion HSO5- is potassium monopersulphate (2KHSO5·KHSO4·K2SO4) (Oxone) that may be decomposed into radicals (OH., SO4-., SO5-.) by means of transition metal as Co(II). Different concentrations were used for both compounds and the combination ([Co2+] = 1.00μM/[HSO5-] = 5.00·10-2 M) achieved the highest COD removal (60%) and complete decomposition of the oxidant was verified for contact times of 45 min. This process has some advantages comparing to the conventional Fenton method such as the absence of the costly pH adjustment and the Fe(III) hydroxide sludge which characterize this treatment process. The Fenton process showed that the combination of [H2O2] = 2.00M/[Fe2+] = 0.70 M was the best and archived COD removal of 80%. The treatments studied in this research have achieved high COD removal, but the wastewater from the biodiesel purification stage presents very high parametric values of Chemical Oxygen Demand (667,000 mgO2/L), so the final COD concentration reached is still above the emission limit of discharge in surface water, according the Portuguese Law (Decree-Law 236/98). However, both treatments have proved to be feasible techniques for the pre-oxidation of the wastewater under study and can be considered as a suitable pre-treatment for this type of wastewaters. A rough economic analysis of both processes was, also, made.