Optimized Biodiesel Preparation from Waste Cooking Oil as a Fuel for Unmodified Diesel Engines

Abstract

The continuous fluctuation in the price of crude oil in the international market during the Covid-19 situation forced all the nation to work for self-sustainability in the energy sector. This pandemic condition also teaches all to utilize available sources effectively. So to deal with dual problems the optimized conversion of waste into an energy source is the most effective solution. In the present work waste cooking oil is converted into biodiesel and the production process is optimized using the response surface methodology technique. The central composite design approach of RSM is selected for optimization in the present work which provides a better result in limited experiments. The yield of waste cooking oil biodiesel is optimized through four parameters i.e. catalyst concentration, temp., time, and alcohol to oil molar ratio. The effect of all these parameters is analyzed exhaustively with the help of design expert software. The physicochemical properties of optimized WCOB are measured and the results are compared with petrodiesel fuel and normally prepared WCOB. It is found that the yield of WCOB is increased by more than 4% while prepared with optimized parameter values. The physicochemical properties of optimized WCOB were also found better as compared to normally prepared WCOB and comparable to petrodiesel. Hence it can be concluded that the optimization of biodiesel production not only improves the yield but also improves the quality of the biodiesel.