Abstract
Low cost, high fatty acid content waste cooking oil was transformed into biodiesel using an acid catalyzed chemical esterification reaction with 0.5 vol.% of H2SO4 at 60�C for 1 hour followed by the main transesterification reaction. For the purpose of comparison, biodiesel fuel was also prepared using straight vegetable oils (SVO�s). The gas chromatography test showed higher than 95% FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) content for different types of utilized feedstocks. Biodiesel fuel and its blends were characterized based on ASTM test methods to investigate its density, viscosity, flash point, pour point, heating value, and its cetane index and similar physical properties were obtained for all the prepared biodiesel fuels. B20 blend, which contains 20 vol.% of biodiesel and 80 vol.% of diesel, showed a better performance than B0 (100 vol.% of diesel) when tested in a laboratory compression ignition diesel engine. After simulation of the production process via Aspen Hysys, a feasibility study was conducted and the results revealed that utilizing waste cooking oils (WCO�s) as feedstock is more economical than starting with SVO�s as raw material.
Highlights
The worldwide environmental concerns regarding the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, the increasing prices of these fuels, and the fact of their depletion in the near future, have turned the attention towards biofuels as alternative energy sources [1].Biodiesel is a liquid biofuel characterized by its renewability, non-toxicity, biodegradability, and environmental safety
The waste cooking oil collected from restaurants (WCO2) has a free fatty acid (FFA) content of 5.4 % (>3 %) meaning that this feedstock needs to be chemically pre-treated to decrease its fatty acid content in order to enhance the efficiency of the transesterification reaction and reduce soap formation
All the results obtained conform to the specifications imposed by the ASTM standards on biodiesel fuel and its blends
Summary
Biodiesel is a liquid biofuel characterized by its renewability, non-toxicity, biodegradability, and environmental safety It is a mixture of fatty acid alkyl esters that can be synthesized from either vegetable oils or animal fats via the transesterification reaction [2]. The second is related to the food debate concern which suggests that producing biodiesel from SVO’s would decrease the oil supply as an important food ingredient [4]. This would lead to an increase in demand on raw oils, a significant increase in their prices will affect the selling price of the manufactured biodiesel
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