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Design and performance study on polypropylene biodiesel pilot plant for non-edible oils

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Abstract

A cost-effective, efficient biodiesel production plant that conforms to the decentralized feed stock processing program in vogue in villages of tropical countries of Asia and Africa is the concern of the present study. A 50 L/batch capacity biodiesel reactor has been designed and fabricated using polypropylene consisting of reaction vessel, catalyst tank, settling and washing chamber, evaporation chamber, and methanol recovery system. The performance of the reactor has been studied using pongamia oil, jatropha oil, and waste vegetable oil using transesterification process. The biodiesel yield achieved were 93.75–96 % (v/v) for pongamia, 92.5–95 % (v/v) for jatropha, and 94–95.5 % (v/v) for waste vegetable oil. The biodiesel samples have acceptable fuel standards as per ASTM D-6751 and BIS (ISO15607) specifications.

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Acknowledgments

Authors acknowledge the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka for financial support and the Director of Research, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru for facilities and encouragement. Thanks are due to Mr. Ramachandran Nair, Devaki reinforced plastics Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru for fabrication of the pilot plant as per the design requirement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biofuel Park, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, University Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, 560 065, Karnataka, India

    Rajesh K. Kumar, K. T. Prasanna & Balakrishna Gowda

  2. Department of Biotechnology, M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, 560 054, Karnataka, India

    Rajesh K. Kumar &  Channarayappa

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  1. Rajesh K. Kumar
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  2. Channarayappa
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  3. K. T. Prasanna
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  4. Balakrishna Gowda
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Correspondence to Balakrishna Gowda.

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Kumar, R.K., Channarayappa, Prasanna, K.T. et al. Design and performance study on polypropylene biodiesel pilot plant for non-edible oils. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 3, 79–86 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-013-0072-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-013-0072-8

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