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Biodiesel synthesis from non-edible oils by transesterification using the activated carbon as heterogeneous catalyst

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Abstract

The need for renewable environmentally friendly energy resources is growing every day. Biodiesel is one of the most promising alternatives to the conventional non-renewable energy resources. Heterogeneous catalysts proved a high efficiency in the transesterification of oils to produce biodiesel. In this research, activated carbon was tested as a heterogeneous catalyst in the transesterification of two non-edible oils (waste cooking oil and Jatropha oil) with methanol to produce biodiesel. Activated carbon was characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and Fourier transformed infrared. The effect of different operating parameters, namely operation time (30, 60, 120 and 180 min), alcohol-to-oil molar ratio (4:1, 6:1, 8:1 and 10:1), catalyst loading [0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 5% (w/w)] and rotational speed (100, 200, 300 and 400 rpm), was investigated. Results showed that increasing the operational time, the alcohol-to-oil molar ratio and the catalyst loading increases the conversion to biodiesel but only to some extent; increasing the stirring rate was found to be beneficial to the process. The optimum conditions were found to be 2 h of heating, 6:1 alcohol-to-oil ratio, 1 wt% catalyst loading and 400 rpm stirring. Under optimum conditions, the conversion to biodiesel reached 93.95 and 93.27% for the waste cooking oil and the Jatropha oil, respectively. The properties of the obtained biodiesel (density, viscosity, flash point, pour point and cloud point) were measured giving promising results.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Agriculture Researches Station (Ismailia, Egypt) which provided the Jatropha seeds.

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  1. Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

    D. A. Kamel, H. A. Farag, N. K. Amin & Y. O. Fouad

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  1. D. A. Kamel
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  2. H. A. Farag
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Kamel, D.A., Farag, H.A., Amin, N.K. et al. Biodiesel synthesis from non-edible oils by transesterification using the activated carbon as heterogeneous catalyst. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 14, 785–794 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-1184-z

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