Abstract
Biodiesel is a fuel produced from renewable resources; it is a clean alternative fuel, which has drawn the attention of energy researchers for the last two decades due to the disturbing effect of climate change caused by diesel fuel. This paper focuses on showcasing the qualities of biodiesel produced from used vegetable oil and the positive impact on the alarming change in climate today. This paper presents an experimental investigation on production of biodiesel from used vegetable oil (UVO) gotten from a road side bean cake (akara) seller. The oil that was intended to be thrown out was de-odoured and filtered to remove impurities. The filtered oil was then used for biodiesel production and characterized with physical and fuel properties such as density, viscosity, cloud point, refractive index, specific gravity, ash content, moisture content, flash point and cloud point. The results obtained were afterwards compared to ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN (Europe’s) international standards. Two biodiesels samples were produced at different temperatures but the same timings. The biodiesel were produced at 700C at 40mins (biodiesel A) and 1000C at 40mins (biodiesel B) with values of specific gravity (0.98 kg/m3; 0.90 kg/m3), density (936kg/m3; 882kg/m3), kinematic viscosity (1.5mm/s2; 5.5 mm/s2), cloud point (150C; 20C), flash point (2600C min; 2000C min), moisture content (0.07%; 0.04%), refractive index (1.4609; 1.4398) and ash point (0.24%; 0.01%) respectively. On comparison, biodiesel A couldn’t match up to the international standards while biodiesel matched up to the standards given.
Highlights
Energy is a fundamental requirement for human existence
The utilization of edible oil and food crops is capable of posing a threat to food security; the successful recovery of used vegetable oil for biodiesel production will eliminate this impending threat enabling used vegetable oil from restaurants, road-side sellers, food vendors and households be recycled into biodiesels
The used vegetable oil (UVO) discarded from a restaurant is getting popular as feedstock for biodiesel fuel since several researchers has proposed that waste vegetable oil is best raw material for biodiesel production (Beatrice et al, 2014)
Summary
Energy is a fundamental requirement for human existence. Many countries in the world are resorting to biodiesel technology to solve the problem of the steady rising rate of fuel ensuing from the reduction of the world’s non-renewable fossil fuels, and environmental pollution at large (Ibeto et al, 2011). This study was carried out to assess the fuel quality of biodiesel which comprises of its production, characterization and modeling thereby bringing to light the conversion of used vegetable oil to biodiesel; a recyclable resource and wealth process. Determination of Flash point: 2.5ml of the sample (biodiesel) was poured into a porcelain dish of a predetermined weight.
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