Experimental and theoretical studies of vegetable oil transesterification for production of biodiesel

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative diesel fuel that can be generated by domestic natural resources such as palm oil, soybeans, rapeseeds, and even waste cooking oil. Commonly, biodiesel is produced by base catalyzed transesterification process with methanol. The palm cooking oil is the raw material for this study. In order to find the optimum values of biodiesel yield and conversion, two parameter were studied; methoxide: oil ratio and reaction temperature. In this study, the parameter was methoxide: oil ratio: 6:1 and 9:1; and reaction temperature: 55, 60, and 65oC. The reaction time is fixed to 60 minutes only. The results show that the optimum reaction temperature was 60oC, the methoxide: oil ratio was 9:1, while the optimum conversion 92.12% with the 92% yield of triglyceride to the methyl ester (biodiesel). The product was undergoing physical properties analysis and testing. The density of product 872.0 kg/m3, kinematic viscosity 4.5 cP, pH 6.45 and saponification value 255.25. All this properties has similar to the ASTM D6571 specification. Pattern of the graph theoretical and experimental from Polymath simulation was almost same.