OPTIMIZATION OF BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM WASTE COOKING OIL

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the optimization of biodiesel from waste cooking oil using bio-based heterogeneous catalyst derived from cow bone and cocoa pod doped with Iron (III) chloride hexahydrate and Strontium Nitrate Anhydrous. The importance of fuels cannot be undermined, the ever increase in the demand of fuels has led to the over dependence on fossil fuels (being the primary source of fuels) which has consequentially led to the depletion of the fossil fuels as its non-renewable, hence there is need for an alternate source of fuel. The waste cooking oil was characterized for its free fatty acid content and physico-chemical properties using standard procedures. The catalyst were characterized using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning electron microscope (SEM) together with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis to assess its suitability. The transesterification process were planned utilizing the Box-Behnken Design (BBD) the entire process was modeled and optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM), the R2 value of the RSM is found to be 0.9695. The effect of factors affecting the transesterification reaction were investigated in an experiment and optimization of the process was carried using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) resulting in an optimum biodiesel yield of 89.6% at a temperature of 60°C, catalyst loading of 5wt.%, Methanol to oil ratio of 12, and reaction time of 75 min.