Production Of Biodiesel By Solid-base Catalyst And The Engine Testing Of Biodiesel

Biodiesel can be made from vegetable oils, animal's fats mixing with methanol/ethanol and the catalysts by transesterification or esterification. Now biodiesel is being paid an increasing attention as an alternative, non-toxic, biodegradable and renewable diesel fuel. Previous studies have shown that the properties of biodiesel are very close to the diesel fuel, and biodiesel therefore can be used in diesel engine without modification to engine structure.Biodiesel is currently produced mainly from pure vegetable oils (in US soybean oil is widely used, and rapeseed, sunflower oils etc.used n Europe), which results in quite high cost on the biodiesel produced, thereby needing the governmental subsidy. In order to lower the cost of biodiesel produced, more and more researches focus on using the low-cost feedstock. Meanwhile the environmental problems such as the waste water and the corruption by the liquid acid/base are inevitable in the mass production process. Based on those facts, a kind of solid-base catalyst was synthesized and used for biodiesel production in our Lab. The catalyst was modified later in order to improve its effect on conversion.Analysis of the physical and chemical properties of biodiesel produced using conventional liquid alkaline catalyst was first made in this work, and then the impact of the biodiesel on an YC6M220G turbo-charge diesel engine exhaust emissions was evaluated by comparing with diesel fuel. The testing results show: without any modification to diesel engine, dynamical performance remains unchanged when using biodiesel blend fuels; the crude biodiesel and diesel blends lead to unsatisfactory emissions whilst the refined biodiesel and diesel blend significantly reduces particles, smoke/soot, HC and CO emissions, for example, CO, HC and particles reduced by 18.6%,26.7% and 20.57%, respectively. Biodiesel is therefore appearing a promising alternative fuel to petro-diesel.Considering the environmental problems caused by the mass production process, much attention has been paid on the development of solid-base catalyst. A kind of solid-base catalyst was synthesized and used for biodiesel production in our Lab. It shows the catalyst had an obvious effect on the peanut oil without pollution during mass production. The catalyst was characterized and later modified so as to improve its effect on the conversion. Through the use of this catalyst, biodiesel cost can be reduced and meanwhile the environmental benefit is improved.