Abstract
On a global scale many countries are still heavily dependent on crude oil to produce energy and fuel for transport, with a resulting increase of atmospheric pollution. A possible solution to obviate this problem is to find eco-sustainable energy sources. A potential choice could be the use of biodiesel as fuel. The work presented aims to characterise the transesterification reaction of waste peanut frying oil using colour analysis and wavelet analysis. The biodiesel production, with the complete absence of mucilages, was evaluated through a suitable set of energy wavelet coefficients and scalograms. The physical characteristics of the biodiesel are influenced by mucilages. In particular the viscosity, that is a fundamental parameter for the correct use of the biodiesel, might be compromised. The presence of contaminants in the samples can often be missed by visual analysis. The low and high frequency wavelet analysis, by investigating the energy change of wavelet coefficient, provided a valid characterisation of the quality of the samples, related to the absence of mucilages, which is consistent with the experimental results. The proposed method of this work represents a preliminary analysis, before the subsequent chemical physical analysis, that can be develop during the production phases of the biodiesel in order to optimise the process, avoiding the presence of impurities in suspension in the final product.
Highlights
In the last years, awareness about energetic and environmental problems has encouraged many researchers to investigate the possibility of using alternative fuels instead of petrol and its derivatives [1]
The main reason why waste vegetable oils are transesterified to alkyl esters is that their high kinematic viscosity, as shown in Table 1, leads to operational problems if they are used as fuel
14, we find that the low frequency wavelet coefficients of the successful test mainly and 15
Summary
Awareness about energetic and environmental problems has encouraged many researchers to investigate the possibility of using alternative fuels instead of petrol and its derivatives [1]. Biofuels derived from biomass, such as bioethanol [2], biodiesel and biomethane, are a viable alternative. Biofuels are mostly derived from edible oils, nonedible oils, fats, waste cooking oil, and algae [3,4]. These biofuels have environmental benefits, they are economically competitive and they are producible in large quantities without reducing food supplies because they are generated from a biological feed stocks [5,6]. Mostly produced from the transesterification reaction of different vegetable oils (peanut, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower), shows a substantial reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur oxides, particulate matter and unburned hydrocarbons [7,8]
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