Production of Biodiesel from Nigeria Restaurant Waste Cooking Oil using Blender

Abstract

Cost of biodiesel produced from virgin vegetable oil through transesterification is higher than that of diesel fuel and cost associated with conventional technique (batch reactor) is enormous. To minimize the cost, waste cooking oil and domestic blender, which was modified as reactor was explored as feedstock and reactor respectively. Laboratory scale quantities of methyl ester of WCO (MEWCO) were synthesized and characterized as diesel fuel. KOH was employed to catalyse the transesterification process of WCO with methanol using 100g WCO, 22,0g methanol, 1.0% KOH at 60oC reaction temperature and 60 minutes reaction time. The process was replicated and average results evaluated. A moderately high yield (96.6 0.45 wt. %) of WCOME was obtained under classic reaction condition. The fuel properties of WCOME measured were found to fulfil both ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 biodiesel standards. In addition, the fuel properties were analogous to other waste cooking oil methyl ester produced by other researchers using conventional techniques/ reactors. This confirms suitability of the blender modified as a reactor for domestic production of biodiesel from restaurant waste cooking oil.