• Energy Research

For the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil with an acid value of 1.86 mg KOH/g, five heterogeneous catalysts—Ba(OH)2, CaO, MgO, ZnO, and AlCl3—were employed. To optimize the reaction parameters of each catalyst, the influence of crucial process variables, such as catalyst loading, methanol-to-oil ratio, and reaction duration, was investigated. In addition, the effect of acetone as a cosolvent toward the progress of biodiesel production and the reusability of the heterogeneous catalysts were also examined, and the data were statistically evaluated with a 95% confidence level. Ba(OH)2 performed exceptionally well, with a 92 wt.% biodiesel yield, followed by CaO with an 84 wt.% yield. However, none of the results for MgO, ZnO, or AlCl3 were adequate. In addition, regardless of the type of catalyst utilized, adding 20 vol.% acetone to the biodiesel manufacturing process led to an increase in output. Furthermore, every heterogeneous catalyst was reusable, but only Ba(OH)2 and CaO produced a significant yield until the third cycle. The other catalysts did not produce yields of any significance.

The crude glycerol produced as a byproduct of transesterification synthesis has very few applications because it comprises of significant amounts of methanol, catalyst, and soap. On the other hand, transesterifications of highly acidic oil in the presence of an alkaline catalyst are problematic due to the presence of high amounts of free fatty acids. In this study, the free fatty acid level of high acid oil, which was initially determined to be 19.25%, was decreased to permit the direct production of biodiesel via glycerolysis with pure glycerol, making direct transesterification feasible. Through a process of purification, crude glycerol was refined to 92.5% purity. It was revealed that the physiochemical parameters of density, moisture content, ash content, matter organic non-glycerol content, pH, and Na/K concentrations of generated purified glycerol are equal to those of commercially available glycerol. In contrast, glycerolysis treatment successfully decreased the free fatty acid level to less than 2% under optimal conditions, which were determined to be 200 °C, a glycerol-to-oil molar ratio of 4:1, and a KOH catalyst concentration of 1.6 wt.% at 350 rpm. The inclusion of hexane as a co-solvent accelerated the glycerolysis process, and the weight ratio of oil-to-hexane was 8:1. Moreover, it was viable to use waste methanol for biodiesel synthesis and purified crude glycerol as a raw material in a variety of industries, including biodiesel production. In addition, compared to acid esterification, the FFA concentration of oil with a high acid value fell significantly.

The present world highly depends on petroleum fuels to gain energy for transportation resulting in the vast side of environmental problems such as global warming and air pollution. Due to this, the price of conventional fuel escalating day by day. Accordingly, the world needs renewable, ecologically suitable, cost-effective alternate against fossil fuels. Bioethanol is one of the most usable fuel or fuel additives among the other biofuels. Ingoing qualities of bioethanol such as high-octane number, high oxygen content, and low energy content are revealed that application of bioethanol produced from different types of waste materials feedstock in the transportation and energy sector diminishes environment pollution. It provides a solution for waste management. The world releases a considerable amount of fruits as waste annually. Thereby, fruit waste is the cheapest feedstock to produce bioethanol. Fruit waste such as whole rotten fruits, fruit peels, seeds and other residues consists of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, starch and simple sugars. Conversion of cellulose and hemicellulose to ethanol is vital to advance pretreatment and hydrolysis techniques to obtain maximum ethanol content. The production process of bioethanol from fruit waste mainly contains pretreatment; hydrolysis, saccharification, fermentation and ethanol extracting process (distillation) steps. Yeast (S. cerevisiae) is primarily used in the fermentation process because of its high conversion efficiency, cost-effectiveness and feasibility of handling. Considering the optimum configuration for bioethanol production, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) is the best commensurate method having maximum bioethanol concentration. The fermentation process could be appreciated through various factors, such as temperature (30-33 ºC), pH of the medium (4-5), time of incubation, feedstock concentration, inoculum size, agitating rate, N sources in the medium to gain high bioethanol concentration.

As the world population and modernization increase, energy demand increases. One of the non-sustainable energy sources is fossil fuels. However, fossil fuel consumption raises various environmental and economic issues. Most of the studies focus on sustainable energy sources, which can replace fossil fuel dependence. Biodiesel is an alternative sustainable fuel for diesel power. Biodiesel can produce through the transesterification process. Since the catalyst plays a significant role in the biodiesel yield during a defined reaction time, the addition of a catalyst can increases the reaction rate. This article is outlined the several catalysts used by multiple researchers over the years to increase biodiesel yields.