Feasibility of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil: lab-scale to pilot-scale analysis

In the last few decades, consciousness of fossil fuel resources and increased environmental concerns have given the need for emergence of alternative fuel. Biodiesel is one of the potential renewable energies produced from edible and non-edible biomass which could be a potential alternative for petrol-derived diesel. In this work, initially the process of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil using potassium hydroxide as catalyst and the process parameters were studied in laboratory. The maximum biodiesel yield of 97% was attained at 75 °C with 1 wt% catalyst concentration and oil-methanol molar ratio of 1:06 at 350 rpm and 90 min. Also, these process conditions were used for biodiesel production in the pilot plant and obtained 97% yield. Overall, mass balance for the pilot plant was studied to analyze the product yield loss. The fatty acid methyl ester formation in the plant was confirmed by characterization with FTIR and ¹H NMR. Further, the quality of biodiesel produced was compared for its physiochemical properties with the ASTM standards.