Application of Crop-residue Biomass as a Catalyst for Bio-diesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil

Abstract

To produce biodiesel economically, one should select an appropriate feedstock and catalyst. Waste cooking oil is available after frying various types of food items in India. Catalyst is required to be heterogeneous. India produces a great number of crop residues every year. They need to be utilized to avoid disposal issues. The crop residue, coconut coir is available from food processing industries, especially in the coastal regions of India. It is the source of carbon. So, it was selected as a catalyst. The coconut coir was activated by NaOH, followed by sulphonation. The resulting catalyst was used to produce biodiesel using waste cooking oil. The formations of biodiesel were studied using alcohol to oil ration (A:O), time of reaction, reaction temperature, and catalyst loading. At the optimized conditions of these parameters, biodiesel yield was more than 90%. The biodiesel thus synthesized was characterized in terms of fuel properties, namely, calorific values, flash point, density, viscosity, acid value, cloud point, pour point, and cetane number. These values were compared with the standard ones.

Keywords: Biodiesel, coconut coir, activated carbon, characterization, FFA conversion