Comparative Study on the Effects of Oxygenates on Biodiesel from Fresh and Used Cooking Oil

ABSTRACT

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel that will soon be fully accepted in the commercial world but there are limitations to its use that need improvement. The use of oxygenated additives has improved the burning/fuel qualities of conventional diesel and gasoline.

These oxygenates may also improve the qualities of biodiesel. This paper focuses on comparing the fuel qualities such as the density, specific gravity, heat content, flash point, and kinematic viscosity of oxygenate-biodiesel blends.

The biodiesel was produced from fresh and waste cooking oil and they were characterized and compared to ASTM standards. The oxygenated additives (ethanol, methanol, and diethyl ether) were blended in the percentages 10, 20, 30, and 40% with biodiesel from fresh and waste oil.

The physicochemical properties such as kinematic viscosity, density, specific gravity, flash point, and heat content were analyzed for the blends. The density and specific gravity values were within the range of 0.74-0.84 g/ml and 0.76-0.85 respectively.

The kinematic viscosities at 40oC were within 3.5-5.0 mm2s-1 after oxygenated additives were added. The blends ignited at 16oC before the flashpoints could be gotten.

The heat content values for the biodiesel from fresh oil increased at 10 and 20% but decreased at 40% while that of biodiesel from waste oil decreased at 10, 30, and 40% for the ethanol and methanol blends.

The diethyl ether blend did not show any pattern with an increase in addition. The oxygenate addition improved the density, specific gravity, and kinematic viscosity.

INTRODUCTION

Background of Study

The recognition of global warming and depletion of fossil fuels has led to the search for other energy options which are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

The emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels has led scientists to turn to biofuels as an alternative source. Biofuels are fuels made from different types of biomass such as cellulose, algal oil, corn, soy, sugar cane, jatropha, camelina, rapeseed, animal fat, methane, paper waste, and the likes.

These sources create different fuels such as bio alcohols, plant-based biodiesel, and kerosene, biogas, solid biofuels, and the likes (Webb & Coates, 2012).

1.1          Biodiesel

Biodiesel has grown quite a name for itself since its inception in the 20th century. It is a liquid biofuel composed of simple alkyl esters of fatty acids made from the transesterification of vegetable oils and animal fats which are renewable and non-toxic.

It is known for its production of low greenhouse gases as compared to fossil fuels (Fangrui & Milford, 1999). The biodiesel produced is independent of the starting material which makes any material containing free fatty acids a suitable feedstock (Michael, Andrew, Winnie, & Thomas, 2006).

Biodiesel production has increased considerably in the last thirty years due to the properties that confirm it is environmentally suitable.

REFERENCES

American Society for Testing and Materials. (2007). Standard specification for biodiesel fuel (B100) blend stock for distillate fuels. Retrieved from ASTM International : http://www.astm.org/Standards/D6751.htm
Arjun, C. B., Chris, W. K., & Rafiqul, I. M. (2008). Waste cooking oil as an alternate feedstock for biodiesel production. Energies, 3-18.
Aworanti, O. A., Agarry, S. E., & Ajani, A. O. (2012). A laboratory study of the effect of temperature on the densities and viscosities of binary and ternary blends of soyabean oil, soy biodiesel and petroleum diesel oil. Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science , 444-452.
Babagana, G., Shittu, B. S., & Idris , B. M. (2012). Biodiesel kinematic viscosity analysis of Balanite aegyptiaca seed oil. ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Science, 432- 435.
Barabas, I., & Todorut, L.-A. (2011). Biodiesel qaulity, standards and properties . In Biodiesel Quality, Emissions and By-products (pp. 1-28). InTech.
Brent , B., Eberhardt, J., Goguen, S., & Jimell, E. (1997, October 13). Diethyl ether as a renewable diesel fuel. Retrieved from Alternative Fuels Data Center: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/pdfs/dee.pdf

Comments are closed.

Hey Hi

Don't miss this opportunity

Enter Your Details