Kinetic Study of Ultrasound-Intensified Biodiesel Production Using Anion Exchange Resin as a Heterogeneous Catalyst

The mathematical models used to represent the kinetics of heterogeneous reactions are usually complex and require the adjustment of a significant number of variables. The present study aimed to apply a simpler kinetic model with fewer adjusted parameters for the heterogeneous reaction during ultrasound-assisted biodiesel production using anion exchange resin as a catalyst. Through bench tests and computational tools, which molecules would enter the resin pores during the reaction and their effects on the kinetic data were investigated. With this information, two possible approaches were proposed. The results show the second approach as physically more accurate, considering the samples taken from both inside and outside the resin. It also allows for better fitting of the kinetic model and obtaining correlation coefficients (R- 2) greater than 99%. The findings of this study are expected to be useful for building more accurate and simpler models for biodiesel production processes with various catalysts and reagents.