Biodiesel Production From Tannery Solid Waste

The dwindling resources of fossil fuels coupled with the steady increase in energy consumptionrnhave encouraged research interest in alternative and renewable energy sources. Biodiesel is onernof the most promising alternatives for fossil fuels. To foster market competitiveness forrnbiodiesel, it is necessary to produce biodiesel from economically viable and environmentallyrnsound feed stocks. This study deals with the biodiesel production from tannery solid waste.rnThe tannery solid wastes, from different sections of processing units, have been characterized forrntheir fat content. The investigation proved that it was the fleshing waste which has a potential fatrncontent (23%) to be used as biodiesel feed stock.rnThe fleshing oil converted to free acid methyl ester (FAME) or biodiesel using a two step acidrnand base catalyzed esterification and transesterification reactions respectively. The effect of oilrnto alcohol molar ratio, the amount of catalyst and temperature on biodiesel production wasrninvestigated using Design Expert 7.0.0 and optimum reaction conditions were determined. Thernfuel properties of the biodiesel were also studied according to the ASTM standard. The resultrnshowed that fleshing oil can be a very viable and commercially competitive biodiesel feed stockrneven though some of the properties like cloud point needs further improvement.

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