Browsing by Author "Dagne, Henok"

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    Optimization and Characterization of Biodiesel Production from Leather Industry Fleshing Wastes
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-11) Dagne, Henok; Karthikeyan, Rajan(PhD)
    Leather industry fleshing wastes have been currently recognized as potential feed stocks for biodiesel production due to high fat content and less competition with food production. Moreover, utilization of industrial wastes for energy production has additional environmental protection purposes. This research work aims at optimization of process variables of biodiesel production from limed leather fleshing waste. Wet limed leather fleshing wastes were delimed using 1% boric acid, dried, chopped and subjected to Soxhlet extraction. The oil after concentrated was treated by 2% w/w orthophosphoric acid and 3% w/w distilled water to remove gums. The pretreated oil had acid value of 1.13 mg KOH /g of oil, FFA of 0.56 %. Since the FFA was below 2.5% direct homogenous base catalyzed transesterification was conducted. The conversion to biodiesel by potassium hydroxide-catalyzed transesterification was achieved above 96% under optimum conditions: a methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 6:1, catalyst amount of 1 % w/w, reaction temperature of 60 °C for an hour reaction time. The produced FAME was found to have viscosity of 5.99 mm2/s density of 880 kg/m3 , cetane number of 68.5, iodine value of 65.13g I2 /100g and HHV of 42.38 MJ/kg. The results showed that majority of the fuel properties are within the ASTM and EN standards. Keywords: Biodiesel, fleshing oil, homogenous catalysis, pretreatment, transesterification