Investigation of Biodiesel Production Using Heterogeneous Catalyst
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Biodiesel production is a very hot issue within research, politics and investments worldwide. The
problem of finding economically viable and environmentally friendly renewable energy sources
is an urgent matter. Not only is the world faced with a finite supply of fossil-fuels, but concern is
growing over the possibility of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Biodiesel, a
liquid fuel derived from plant oils or animal fats, represents a renewable energy source that could
contribute to the solution of both problems; it can be continually produced as long as we are able
to grow plants and it can be made in such a way as to release no net addition of greenhouse gases
to the environment. However, technical challenges must be overcome before biodiesel can
contribute significantly to the world's energy supply; with current technology biodiesel
production is profitable only under special circumstances.
This thesis research seeks to address this problem by studying the production of biodiesel using
heterogeneous catalysts. Heterogeneous catalysts can make biodiesel more energy efficient, and
therefore less expensive, by eliminating the need for expensive purification processes that
separate the catalyst from reaction products typical in the use of homogeneous catalysts. The
experimental design and statistical analysis was done by Design-Expert 7.0.0 program. Fatty acid
methyl ester was produced via transesterification process using sodium phosphate as a
heterogeneous catalyst and purified jatropha curcas oil which is extracted from the jatropha seed
bought from dessie. To obtain a high quality biodiesel fuel that comply the specification of
standard methods, some important variables such as reaction temperature, molar ratio of
methanol to oil and mass weight of catalyst were selected and studied. At the following
conditions; 333K of reaction temperature, methanol to jatropha oil ratio of 4 and 5 mass wt% of
catalyst, an optimum fatty acid methyl ester yield of 94.98% was obtained, indicating that
sodium phosphate has the potential as a heterogeneous catalyst for the production of fatty acid
methyl ester from jatropha oil. Moreover, physico-chemical characterization of the fatty acid
methyl ester was performed and compared with the standard biodiesel properties.
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Process Engineering Stream