Abstract:
In order to reduce the demand and negative environmental impacts of
petroleum based fuels, it is necessary to develop an economically viable and
environmentally friendly alternative energy source. Biodiesel is a mixture of
monoalkyl esters of long chain fatty acids and it is normally produced by
transesterification of triglycerides in vegetable oils. Although biodiesel is a
potential alternative fuel, its production cost is high because of high
temperature (60-65oC) and lengthy procedure. This work was carried out to
identifying a process of reducing the production cost by developing a
method which requires less energy consumption and less time. Palm olein
oil was used as the vegetable oil because many Asian countries use it to
produce biodiesel and Sri Lanka produces palm olein oil. In this study,
biodiesel was produced by transesterification of palm olein oil using
methanol and NaOH. To increase the efficiency of the reaction, miscibility
of reactants was increased using acetone as a cosolvent. The reaction
occurred at room temperature (27-29oC). The yield was determined under
different reaction conditions. The best conditions were methanol:oil (9:1),
cosolvent:oil (5:1), 0.5 % NaOH (by weight) and 2 h. reaction period. The
yield was 92%. The methyl esters of fatty acids present were oleic
(60.28%), linoleic (13.14%) and palmitic (11.84%). Density, acid number,
kinematic viscosity, flash point and calorific value agree with ASTM
international standards. It is found that this method is economical because
of less energy consumption and less time required