Abstract
Abstract Due to the depletion of fossil fuel energy sources, new alternative energy sources are becoming prevalent in our society. Biodiesel has been recognized as an attractive replacement for depleting energy sources since it is produced mainly from vegetable oils and animal fats, is a renewable resource, and is non-toxic. The synthesis of biodiesel involves heating a triglyceride with methanol (or ethanol) under strongly basic conditions. Since fossil fuels are used for electrical energy in the United States, the amount of electricity required to heat this reaction requires the use of non-renewable resources. An effective means for minimizing the amount of electricity needed to drive chemical reactions to completion is proposed through the use of solar parabolic reflectors. In this study, a technique was developed to incorporate recently proposed solar reflectors developed from satellite dishes into the synthetic procedure for biodiesel. Through the use of our technique, the generation of carbon dioxide waste during biodiesel production has been eliminated. Another area of environmental concern in biodiesel production is the generation of waste by-products (glycerol). A technique has been developed that incorporates the use of recovered biodiesel waste glycerol as the solvent system for Wolff-Kishner reduction reactions. The reduction of isobutyryl chloride has been performed successfully using biodiesel waste glycerol as the solvent system and solar irradiation as the heat source for the chemical reaction.
Highlights
300 million years ago, plants and animals that were living in the ocean absorbed and stored energy from the sun in their bodies as carbon
To give an estimate of the amount of carbon dioxide that is released through the burning of fossil fuels, it has been reported that for every gallon of gasoline that a car burns, 9.98 kilograms of carbon dioxide gas is released into the atmosphere [3]
A solar reflector was designed through the repurposing of unused satellite dishes into a reflective parabolic mirror that will serve as the sole heat source to drive synthetic chemical reactions to completion [17]
Summary
300 million years ago, plants and animals that were living in the ocean absorbed and stored energy from the sun in their bodies as carbon. Once these animals died, their bodies sank to the ocean floor, where they were covered with layers of sediment deposits, which were heated and compacted until they became oil [1]. An example of a renewable fuel source would be vegetable oil. Since the raw material that the fuel is being produced from is replenishable, vegetable oil can be viewed as a renewable fuel source whose supply will potentially never run out
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