Transesterification of waste cooking oil in biodiesel production utilizing CaO/Al2O3 heterogeneous catalyst; [Transesterifikasi sisa minyak masak dalam pengeluaran biodiesel menggunakan CaO/Al2O3 mangkin heterogenus]

• Published in: Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences
• Main Author: Shohaimi N.A.M.; Marodzi F.N.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences 2018
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85043334431&doi=10.17576%2fmjas-2018-2201-20&partnerID=40&md5=209ff4386c35c245508ad61c04d53c66

The increasing demand for fossil fuel brings a great concern as it is natural and non-renewable sources. There are several studies on biodiesel using renewable sources such as waste cooking oil. The process of transforming waste cooking oil into biodiesel is called transesterification reaction which involved one step (esterification) and two step (esterification-transesterification) reaction. The performance of the CaO/Al2O3 catalyst was investigated. The parameters studied were reaction time and catalyst loading. In this study, it was found that the highest yield was obtained from the two step transesterification reaction, 30.91% with optimum condition of 3 wt.% of Ca/Al2O3 catalyst, 12:1 methanol to oil ratio, reaction temperature of 65 ºC for 3 hours. Esterification reaction reduce the FFA content in the feedstock, because, in order to achieve high biodiesel yield, the acid value of feed stock should below than 1 mg KOH/g oil. GC-MS results showed that six methyl ester species was found in the product and this finding reveals that the free fatty acid had successfully converted to methyl ester by using two step esterification-tranesterification reaction. © 2018, Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences. All rights reserved.