Acid Catalysis of Waste Cooking Oils for Biodiesel Production

Sustainable energy source and pollution free environment is the immediate requirement of developing countries. Waste cooking oils of five different origins were considered in the present work for biodiesel production. Attempt was made to study the effect of process variables on acid-catalyzed oil transesterification. The various parameters such as catalyst amount, reaction temperature, reaction time, molar ratio of alcohol, and free fatty acids were analyzed to determine the optimum condition for biodiesel production. Food grade coconut, mustard, olive, peanut and soybean waste cooking oils were used to produce biodiesel. Attempt was made to develop mathematical expressions by correlating different input parameters and yield of biodiesel obtained with all the five oil samples. The experimental yield was also compared with those obtained from developed correlations. Good agreement among experimental and theoretical values was observed which implies that this study maybe considered as a base line for the development of an optimum biodiesel production plant.