Research On Producing Biodiesel From Waste Oil Of Restaurant

Increasing environmental awareness and depletion of energy resources are the driving force for the industry to develop renewable fuels which are environmentally friendly. In the past several years, the increases in petroleum prices and uncertainties of petroleum availability lead to renewed interest in vegetable oil fuels for diesel engines. Today, waste cooking oils are not only polluting the environment, but also doing harm to the health of people. To utilize waste oils environmentally friendly is becoming more and more important for researchers. Dilution of oils with solvents and microemulsions of vegetable oils lowers the viscosity, however, it might cause the problems of engine performance such as more carbon deposits and injector coking. The transesterification process is most likely to be the industrial process in future. Compared with other new renewable and clean engine fuel alternatives, methyl esters of vegetable oils have several outstanding advantages. The main factors affecting transesterification are the molar ratio of oil to alcohol, catalyst, reaction temperature and pressure, reaction time, and the contents of free fatty acids and water in oils. Based on transesterification with base-catalyst or acid-catalyst, this project is looking for the possibility of converting waste oil to biodiesel, which can be used in the engines replacing 2# Diesel. Meanwhile, the conversion rate of waste oil to biodiesel is analyzed by using gas chromatograph(yGC). The optimum experimental conditions of transesterification with base-catalyst is determined by orthogonal experiments. And the kinetics of transesterification is analyzed as well. Moreover, the properties of produced biodiesel are analyzed according to the national diesel standard of China, and the performance of combustion is tested too. According to the above-mentioned work, it is proved that biodiesel has the large possibility to replace the 2# diesel. According to the formula of Grunberg-Nissan, the relationship of the viscosity of biodiesel and conversion rate is clarified thereby justifying the conversion rate based on viscosity. However, catalyst. The research focusing on the solutions to those problems should be conducted further.