Production of Biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil by Transesterification Process using Heterogeneous Catalyst

Abstract

Non-renewable diesel from fossil has been considered as potentially carcinogenic with serious harmful effect to human health and to the environment. This study aimed to produce a renewable diesel –biodiesel- via transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO), investigated and determined the most suitable amongst various types of heterogenous catalysts (viz a viz KOH/CaCO3, KOH/CaO and KOH/K2CO3). The chemical and physical characterisation of the biodiesel was been carried out. Among the catalysts investigated, KOH/CaCO3 catalyst showed the best catalytic performance in terms of % yield and better fuel quality in density, acid value, viscosity and free fatty acid. The reason for this performance may be due to its most basic characteristic than the others. As a result, this catalyst was selected for the optimisation study. At the optimum reaction conditions of 10 wt% catalyst loading and 1:10 oil to methanol feed mole ratio, triglycerides conversion was highest, 98.12%. The characterisation results shows that the parameters tested (i.e. density, viscosity, acid value and free fatty acid) meet the strict requirements of the biodiesel standard and therefore, the produced fuel can be used in place of the petrol diesel.