Securing liquid biofuel by upgrading waste fish oil via renewable and sustainable catalytic technology

Abstract

This study investigates the transesterification of waste fish oil with butanol using an improved method to generate glycerol enriched calcium oxide. The direct addition of glycerol into the oil showed significant improvement compared to prior described methods. The doping time and temperature were investigated, and the results showed that T = 60 °C and t = 45 min were the optimal. The catalyst was imaged in a scanning electron microscope, SEM, and compared before and after reaction. With optimal doping parameters, the reaction was investigated in a design of experiments, DOE, using response surface methodology, RSM, at three different time points, 60, 75, and 90 min, and analyzed separately and compared. The predicted optimal point was the same for all time points at T = 80 °C, MR = 1:6 (oil: butanol), and catalyst amount of 20 wt%, with yields of 95.95 %, 97.48 %, and 97.9 % for 60, 75, and 90 min, respectively.