STM Journals Peer-reviewed research from Consortium e-Learning Network

Journal of Catalyst & Catalysis

Effect of catalyst and methanol on synthesis of methyl esters from used cooking oil

  1. Susarla Venkata Ananta Rama Sastry

Abstract

Due to depletion in the fossil fuels and the increase of energy usage, the rapid depletion of fossil fuel is accelerated. Therefore, using renewable energy is a key solution to the problem of fossil fuel depletion. There are several resources of renewable energy like geothermal energy, solar energy, and biofuels. Biodiesel is a fatty acid alkyl ester made from renewable resources such as used cooking oil. The attractiveness of biodiesel lies in the reduction of the dependency on imported petroleum in non-oil-producing countries and the provision of a market for excess production of vegetable oils in many countries. Biodiesel is produced from its feedstock through the transesterification reaction that was done using methanol as an alcohol and potassium hydroxide as a catalyst. The aim of study is to identify the effect of methanol amount and catalyst concentration on the biodiesel yield. The properties of the produced biodiesel were comparable with ASTM standards

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