PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS ANALYSIS OF BIODIESEL DERIVED FROM USED COOKING OIL

Abstract

There is increasing interest on Used cooking oils as cost effective feedstock for biodiesel production. In this study, biodiesel was produced from used cooking oil (Acid value 1.09 mgKOH/g), collected from one of the restaurants at faculty of engineering, Sudan University of Science and Technology, using an alkaline base tranesterfication process. The maximum biodiesel yield obtained was 85.3% in combination of process parameters of 25% (v/v) methanol to oil ratio, 0.8% (w/w) of KOH, at maintained reaction time of 120 min, reaction temperature of 60 oC and steering peed of 400 rpm. Optimizing the process parameters such as alcohol to oil molar ratio and catalyst concentration, the results show that the biodiesel yield decreases with the increase in methanol to oil molar ration, and reduces if the alkali catalyst is added above its optimum concentration. The basic physicochemical properties of the biodiesel produced were found to be in agreement within the ASTM D6751 specified limits. Mainly, these parameters were acid value, density, viscosity and flash point. Moreover, the calorific value was found to be 41.05 Mj/kg.