BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM MUTTONTALLOW

The high energy demand in the industrial world as well as in the domestic sector and pollution problems caused due to the widespread use of fossil fuel make it necessary to develop the alternate energy from renewable sources which must be from a fuel which must be technically feasible, economically competitive, environmentally acceptable and readily available. One possible alternative is the use of oils of plant origin, which is termed as Biodiesel which is biodegradable, non-toxic, domestic resource thereby relieving reliance on petroleum fuel imports. It also has more favorable combustion emission profile, such as low emission of CO, particulate matter and unburned Hydrocarbon. Transesterification is a common well established chemical reaction in which linear monohydroxyl alcohols reacts with vegetable oils which are triglycerides of fatty acids, in the presence of a catalyst. Alkali catalyzed transesterification is considered to be the best amongst all methods available for the production of biodiesel from fresh oil. In the present investigation an attempt has been made to use mutton fat as low cost sustainable potential feed stock for biodiesel production. Effect of various process parameters such as amount of catalyst, temperature, amount of methanol and reaction time on biodiesel production was investigated. The optimal conditions for processing 50 g of mutt on fat were obtained. Under optimal conditions, the yield of mutton fat methylesters was 93.2%. The fuel properties were estimated. Mutton fat was found to be highly suitable to produce biodiesel with recommended fuel properties.