Energy and economic analyses of biodiesel production from edible sunflower oil and waste cooking oil

Abstract A major hurdle in the commercialization of biodiesel production is the cost of the process especially the cost of the raw feedstock material. Waste cooking oil is a very prominent and economical energy source for producing biodiesel as its use can greatly reduce waste whilst also generating a renewable and sustainable biofuel. In this work, an energy balance and an economic analysis of biodiesel production using both edible sunflower oil and waste cooking oil (WCO) were conducted. Two types of catalyst were studied: a homogeneous catalyst (KOH) and a heterogeneous catalyst (CaO derived from Noble Pectin seashells). The use of WCO for biodiesel production using CaO derived from Noble Pectin seashells was found to be an energy gain process, with a net energy gain of 8.64 MJ per liter of produced biodiesel and an energy use efficiency greater than 1. The total energy input and output were calculated as 36.18 and 44.82 MJ/L respectively. Moreover, the economic analysis of the process showed a benefit‐to‐cost ratio of 2.60. Hence, the use of WCO as a second‐generation feedstock serves as a novel and cost‐effective approach for the production of biofuels. Although studies, such as this one, prove the potential of WCO for biodiesel production on an economic and energy basis, several research gaps still remain before practical application can be adopted. Therefore, more research efforts are still required to study the use and application of WCO for biodiesel production on an industrial scale.