The effect of catalyst choice on biodiesel yield and quality using waste cooking oil as a feedstock

Biodiesel is one current area of interest as a replacement for traditional diesel fuel. Benefits of biodiesel include that it can be derived from renewable resources, and it possesses properties similar to that of traditional diesel fuel. Biodiesel is often produced through a catalyzed transesterification process, which involves the use of a catalyst to aid in the conversion of triglycerides into alkyl esters. A method called the transesterification double step process (TDSP) was researched and used in this project due to the success seen using this method for the conversion of waste cooking oil to biodiesel. In this project, four basic catalysts were used at two different reaction temperatures to produce biodiesel, with waste cooking oil being used as the feedstock of interest. New cooking oil was also used to produce biodiesel under the same conditions used for the conversion of waste cooking oil. Three experiments were performed for each set of unique reaction conditions, for a total of 48 experiments conducted. Various testing methods were used for characterization of the final biodiesel products, with results allowing for the relationships between biodiesel quality and catalyst choice, temperature, and feedstock to be determined.