Abstract
Biodiesel is one of the most environmentally friendly and renewable fuels, as it is a non-polluting fuel and is made from living resources, such as vegetable oils. The steel industry generates a variety of solid wastes, including electric arc furnace slag (EAFS). The synthesis of biodiesel from waste sunflower cooking oil was examined in this study, utilizing EAFS as a catalyst, which mainly contains ferric and ferrous oxides, calcium oxide, and silica. To evaluate their impact on biodiesel production, four independent variables were chosen: temperature (50–70 °C), catalyst loading (1–5%), methanol-to-oil (M:O) molar ratio (5–20), and time (1–4 h). The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to examine the impact of independent variables on reaction response, which is the biodiesel yield. This process was carried out using a design expert program by central composite design (CCD). A model was constructed, and showed that the biodiesel yield was directly proportional to all independent reaction parameters. The predicted model’s adequacy was investigated using analysis of variance (ANOVA), which showed that it is an excellent representative of the results. The optimization of reaction conditions was investigated in order to maximize biodiesel yield at minimal reaction temperature and time, achieving a 94% biodiesel yield at a 20:1 M:O molar ratio, 5% catalyst loading, 55.5 °C reaction temperature, and 1 h reaction time.
Highlights
Biodiesel is appealing because it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is biodegradable and nontoxic [1,2]; it is produced by the transesterification of vegetable oil and animal fat
This paper shows the possibility of biodiesel synthesis from waste sunflower cooking oil, utilizing electric arc furnace (EAF) slag as a solid heterogeneous catalyst in the transesterification reaction between the methanol and the oil
It should be noted that the biodiesel resulting from this work used low reaction temperature and time, so it used less energy compared with the other works; in addition, it used solid waste without any chemical preparation steps, unlike the others, and it gave a higher conversion of approximately 94%, so this production process has low energy and cost, while at the same time it produced biodiesel with high purity and yield
Summary
Population growth and industrialization activities increase the demand for energy resources. For the transesterification reaction using soybean oil, Liu et al employed carbide slag loaded with ferric oxide (CS/Fe2O3) as a biodiesel catalyst. Khodary et al used electric arc furnace dust as a heterogonous solid waste as a catalyst for biodiesel production; the resulting biodiesel had a 96% yield at 57 ◦C, a methanol-to-oil ratio of 20:1, a 1 h processing time, and a 5% catalyst loading [13]. Electric arc furnace slag contains heavy metals such as iron, which is recognized to cause a first-class hazard, and its disposal necessitates large surfaces, so many studies have been conducted to recycle this solid waste in many industries [16]. This paper shows the possibility of biodiesel synthesis from waste sunflower cooking oil, utilizing EAF slag as a solid heterogeneous catalyst in the transesterification reaction between the methanol and the oil. Property Molecular weight Density of 25 ◦C (kg/m3) Viscosity at 40 ◦C Acid value (mg of KOH/g of oil) Saponification value (mg of KOH/g of oil)
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