Effect of alcohol ratio and reaction temerature on the biodiesel production from used cooking oil

Abstract EN

Biodiesel, or alkyl ester, is an alternative renewable, biodegradable and nontoxic diesel fuel produced by catalytic transesterification of oil.

It can be successfully employed in diesel engines and liquid fuel burners.

The present work deals with a system for transesterification of vegetable oil using a stirring reactor.

Used cooking oil is employed for this purpose due to its availability and costeffectiveness.

The transesterification of oil was carried out using molar ratios (oil:methanol) of (1:9, 1:7, 1:5, 1:3) and reaction temperatures of (45, 55, 60, 70 oC).

Sodium Hydroxide NaOH was used as a catalyst by an amount of 1% of oil weight and a stirring speed of 500 rpm was applied for 2 hours.

The results showed that the production of biodiesel depends on the molar ratio of (oil:methanol) and on the reaction temperature.

The optimal values that gave the highest productivity of biodiesel occurred at the molar ratio of (1:7) (oil:methanol) at a reaction temperature of (60 oC) in the presence of NaOH as a catalyst by an amount of 1% of oil weight.