FATTY METHYL ESTERS FROM VEGETABLE OILS FOR USE AS A DIESEL FUEL

Abstract

The world is confronted with the twin crisis of fossil fuel
depletion and environmental degradation. The indiscriminate
extraction and consumption of Fossil fuels have led to a
reduction in petroleum. Due to the concern on the availability
of recoverable fossil fuel reserves and environmental problems
caused by the use of those fossil fuels, considerable attention
has been given to biodiesel production. The methyl esters of
vegetable oils, known as biodiesel becoming increasing
popular, because of its potential as a green alternative fuel for
diesel fuel. It has many advantages over conventional diesel
fuels. These include biodegradable, non toxic, nil sulfur
content, reduced aromatics. It can either be directly used in
engine or can be blended with conventional diesel, and requires
no engine modification. There are various methods available
for the production of biodiesel such as micro emulsification,
dilution, pyrolysis, transesterification and esterification, among
which transesterification is the best process. Biodiesel is
produced by transesterifying the parent oil or fat with an
alcohol, usually methanol, in presence of a catalyst usually
strong base such as NaOH or KOH or, preferably an
increasingly more commonly alkoxide. The transesterification
reaction variable that affect yield and purity of the product
include molar ratio of alcohol to vegetable oil, type of catalyst,
molar ratio of catalyst to oil, temperature and degree of
refinement of vegetable oil. In this paper various vegetable oils
transesterification was studied with the purpose of achieving
the best conditions for biodiesel production.