Preparation And Characterization Of Biofuel From U Sed Cooking Oil

Abstract

Alternative fuel is currently an important issue all over the world. This is due to the efforts made on reducing global warming which is contributed by the combustion of petro diesel. Biodiesel is nontoxic, biodegradable, produced from renewable sources. It contributes a minimal amount of net greenhouse gases such as CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions to the atmosphere. The present study is focused on the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil thereby to reduce the cost of bio diesel, waste and pollution. Important variables such as oil to methanol ratio, types of reactants, the method of production and catalytic activities were selected to obtain a high quality biodiesel fuel within the specifications of American standards for biodiesel (ASTM). The highest biodiesel yield (96%) was obtained using 1:6, oil to methanol ratio and 1.2%KOH catalyst by shaking the reaction vessel. The method used was easy, fast; and the biodiesel produced under this condition exhibits characteristics almost nearest to that of biodiesel standards. The biodiesel characteristic s; including calorific value (42.71MJ/Kg), Kinematic viscosity (4.9 mm2/s at 40 0C), copper strip corrosion (No.1a), acid value (0.5537mg KOH/g), density (at 15 0C, 0.8782g/mL), water and se diment ( 0.05V %), flash point ( 156), ash content (0.02) and cloud point (16) were obtained an d compared with biodiesel standards. But, the cloud point showed the result that is not valid in cold weather condition and this can be improved by blending the biodiesel with diesel fuel or preparing biodiesel by mixing waste palm oil with those having short chain fatty acid feedstock. Generally, biodiesel obtained under optimum conditions from mixtures of palm and sunflower waste cook-ing oil could be used more effectively as a fuel by blending with diesel fuel.