Author/Authors :
Zare، Mehdi نويسنده , , Ghobadian، Barat نويسنده Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, I.R. IRAN , , Fayyazi، Ebrahim نويسنده Deptartment of Mechanics of Agricultural Machinary, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran 14114, Iran , , Najafi، Gholamhasan نويسنده , , Hosseinzadeh، Bahram نويسنده Deptartment of Mechanics of Agricultural Machinary, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-111, Tehran 14114, Iran ,
Abstract :
ABSTRACT:Studies focused around the produce of biodiesel are increasing at a very fast rate. In this study a domestic microwave oven was modified as a biodiesel producing reactor and the effect of microwave irradiation on transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel production was investigated. Transesterification of WCO was carried out in the presence of methanol as alcohol, using a molar ratio alcohol/oil of 6:1 and 1.0% w/w of potassium hydroxide (KOH) as catalyst. The reactions were performed at different reaction times (1, 2 and 3 min). The quality of the biodiesel obtained has been confirmed by GC analysis of the isolated product. At the end of all tests biodiesel produced conformed to some ASTM specifications. Compared with conventional heating methods the results show that microwave heating can be applied effectively to obtain high methyl esters of fatty acids (biodiesel) yields, effectively reducing the reaction time and of improving the separation process. However, this emerging technology needs to be further researched for possible scale-up for industrial application.
