Utilization of High Voltage to Separate Glycerol during Producing Biodiesel

Abstract

Fried cocking oil from different homes were collected to produce biodiesel through trans-esterification process. It is a chemical reaction between fried cocking oil molecules and methanol alcohol in the presence of catalyst like potassium hydroxide to obtain glycerol as a by-product and biodiesel as a major product. Using gravity technique for separating is not appropriate method because it is conformed per long period; therefore, high voltage technique has been shown capable of fast causing glycerol fallout. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of electrodes span having different high voltages on separating period between methyl ester (biodiesel) and glycerol; besides, to determine the energy consumption for this technique compared to gravity. Data indicated that the least separating period was 210 seconds at distance of 2 cm between electrodes with high voltage 7.2 kV per mixture 10 liters.