Indian Journal of Science and Technology

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Investigation of Biodiesel Production from High Free Fatty Acid through RSM


Affiliations
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil - 629 180, Thuckalay, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Agni College of Technology, Thalambur, Chennai - 600130, Tamil Nadu, India
3 Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil - 629 180, Thuckalay, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kottayam Institute of Technology and Science (KITS), Chengalam East, Pallickathodu, Kottayam - 686585, Kerala, India
 

Background/Objectives: Diesel engine's optional fuel known as Biodiesel holds fatty acids alkyl monoesters from oils of vegetable or fats of animals. It can be formed from renewable sources namely vegetable oils, restaurant waste oil and fry oil. Bio Diesel may be cost effective if produced from feedstock of low cast namely restaurant animal fats, waste oil, and fry oil, which contains of free fatty acids having high amount (FFA). Methods/Statistical Analysis: When processing these oils that are low cost problem occurs and fats are those they regularly possess huge quantity of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) which is impossible for conversion as biodiesel by means of an alkaline catalyst. In this work, a technique has been described for reducing the free fatty acids content of this feedstock's utilizing pretreatment of an acid catalyzed to esterify the free fatty acids earlier to transterifying the triglycerides with catalyst of an alkaline to fulfill the reaction. Chief principle of this work was to expand a two-step production technique of biodiesel from pork waste as a raw material. The variables were methanol to oil ration, base catalyst and acid concentration. With particular attention for optimizing, the first step was the acid catalyst esterification to reduce the free fatty acid content and the second step was alkali catalyzed Transeseterification to convert fatty acid methyl ester. Experiments established the RSM model validity. Maximum percentage of fatty acid methyl ester under optimum conditions of the variables was 93%. Findings: Optimum condition for Transeseterification was 13:1 of methanol to oil, 0.4gm sodium hydroxide concentration and 90min of reaction time. Optimum condition for the acid catalyzed esterification was found to be 1.5v/v. ANOVA analysis has been executed for studying the effect of the variables and response surfaces were plotted. Experiments established the RSM model validity. Applications/Improvements: Experiments are going to be establishing the RSM model validity along with tuning with the help of intelligent algorithms.

Keywords

Biodiesel, Esterification, Free Fatty Acids, RSM, Transeseterification
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  • Investigation of Biodiesel Production from High Free Fatty Acid through RSM

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Authors

M. Dev Anand
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil - 629 180, Thuckalay, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India
S. Vijay Ananth
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Agni College of Technology, Thalambur, Chennai - 600130, Tamil Nadu, India
D. Jackson
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kumaracoil - 629 180, Thuckalay, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India
N. Prabhu
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kottayam Institute of Technology and Science (KITS), Chengalam East, Pallickathodu, Kottayam - 686585, Kerala, India

Abstract


Background/Objectives: Diesel engine's optional fuel known as Biodiesel holds fatty acids alkyl monoesters from oils of vegetable or fats of animals. It can be formed from renewable sources namely vegetable oils, restaurant waste oil and fry oil. Bio Diesel may be cost effective if produced from feedstock of low cast namely restaurant animal fats, waste oil, and fry oil, which contains of free fatty acids having high amount (FFA). Methods/Statistical Analysis: When processing these oils that are low cost problem occurs and fats are those they regularly possess huge quantity of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) which is impossible for conversion as biodiesel by means of an alkaline catalyst. In this work, a technique has been described for reducing the free fatty acids content of this feedstock's utilizing pretreatment of an acid catalyzed to esterify the free fatty acids earlier to transterifying the triglycerides with catalyst of an alkaline to fulfill the reaction. Chief principle of this work was to expand a two-step production technique of biodiesel from pork waste as a raw material. The variables were methanol to oil ration, base catalyst and acid concentration. With particular attention for optimizing, the first step was the acid catalyst esterification to reduce the free fatty acid content and the second step was alkali catalyzed Transeseterification to convert fatty acid methyl ester. Experiments established the RSM model validity. Maximum percentage of fatty acid methyl ester under optimum conditions of the variables was 93%. Findings: Optimum condition for Transeseterification was 13:1 of methanol to oil, 0.4gm sodium hydroxide concentration and 90min of reaction time. Optimum condition for the acid catalyzed esterification was found to be 1.5v/v. ANOVA analysis has been executed for studying the effect of the variables and response surfaces were plotted. Experiments established the RSM model validity. Applications/Improvements: Experiments are going to be establishing the RSM model validity along with tuning with the help of intelligent algorithms.

Keywords


Biodiesel, Esterification, Free Fatty Acids, RSM, Transeseterification



DOI: https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst%2F2016%2Fv9i13%2F132268