Production of Biodiesel from Waste Vegetable Oil via KM Micromixer

Abstract

The production of biodiesel from waste vegetable oils through its pretreatment followed by transesterification process in presence of methanol was investigated using a KM micromixer reactor. The parameters affecting biodiesel production process such as alcohol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, the presence of tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a cosolvent, and the volumetric flow rates of inlet fluids were optimized. The properties of the produced biodiesel were compared with its parent waste oil through different characterization techniques. The presence of methyl ester groups at the produced biodiesel was confirmed using both the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Moreover, the thermal analysis of the produced biodiesel and the comparable waste oil indicated that the product after the transesterification process began to vaporize at 120°C which makes it lighter than its parent oil which started to vaporize at around 300°C. The maximum biodiesel production yield of 97% was recorded using 12 : 1 methanol to oil molar ratio in presence of both 1% NaOH and THF/methanol volume ratio 0.3 at 60 mL/h flow rate.

Ester basestock vaporisation from thin oil films

“…As in cetane spectra, CH 2 , CH 3 bending and CH 2 rocking vibrations modes are fixed at 1463, 1362 and 724 cm −1 , respectively (Figure S5). The band at 1434 cm −1 is likely caused by the methyl ester group (CO–O–CH 3 ) and another characteristic peak at 1197 cm −1 may also correspond to the (C–O) ester linkage . The peak at 1245 cm −1 could be the result of the O‐H deformation, and the small band around 1000 cm −1 could be attributed to the C–CH 2 –O due to the presence of glycerol …”

“…The band at 1434 cm À1 is likely caused by the methyl ester group (CO-O-CH 3 ) and another characteristic peak at 1197 cm À1 may also correspond to the (C-O) ester linkage. 22 The peak at 1245 cm À1 could be the result of the O-H deformation, and the small band around 1000 cm À1 could be attributed to the C-CH 2 -O due to the presence of glycerol. 23 Also, some degradation products are formed probably without any heating, just by the application of thin FAME film onto the steel coupon.…”

The Tribology of Cleaning Processes

“…Bands at 2924 and 2854 cm -1 represent C-H stretching vibrations of saturated carbon-carbon bonds [23]. The peak at about 1737 cm -1 was assigned to C=O stretching of the carbonyl groups, while the band at 1457 cm -1 originated from CH 2 bending vibrations [24]. The band around 1163 cm -1 is thought to be due ester C-O-C stretching [23].…”

Experimental investigation on direct injection diesel engine fuelled with addition of titanium dioxide nanoparticle to M. elangi biodiesel for varying injection pressures

“…Due to high cost of vegetable, the production of vegetable oil is expensive and this is a major disadvantage with vegetable oils, nearly 78% of biodiesel production from vegetable oils only . The researchers reported earlier on production and characterization of various biodiesel from sunflower oil, coconut oil, palm oil and waste cooking oil through a transesterification process . The researchers Dhinesh et al .…”