M. HOSSAIN1* and A. N. M. FAKHRUDDIN2
1=Mosharof Hossain, PhD Student, Department of Environmental Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh and Senior Scientific Officer, Institute of Fuel Research and Development, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh and 2=Abu Naieum Muhammad Fakruddin, Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh.
*Corresponding author: E-mail: mhossain28@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The fossil fuel resources are dwindling day by day. The dwindling of fossil fuel resources and the consciousness of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions have created a need to find alternative energy sources to replace traditional ones. The methyl esters of edible and non-edible oils, known as biodiesel are becoming renowned alternative energy source because of their low environmental impact (non-toxic, clean, renewable and biodegradable). In this work high acid value (34.62 mgKOH/g) containing waste cooking oil converted to biodiesel. Amount of solvent, catalyst, temperature and reaction time were optimized for this biodiesel production from waste cooking oil in two-step catalyzed process. In the first step, acid catalyst was used for the esterification reaction to reduce the free fatty acid content in the oil under 2%. The next step base catalyzed transesterification process converted the pretreated waste cooking oil into biodiesel and glycerol in the optimum free fatty acid condition. The highest biodiesel yield was 86.16% with 0.14 % of free fatty acid. The physical properties of waste cooking oil methyl ester known as biodiesel compared with standard biodiesel. FTIR of WCO and WCOME were studied for the confirmation of the conversion.
Keywords: Biodiesel, Free fatty acid, Waste cooking oil, Esterification and Transesterification.