Review of process parameters for biodiesel

production from different feedstocks

Written by : Puneet Verma n, M.P.Sharma

My name is
Luthfi Mufidatul Hasanah
 Biodiesel
Petroleum fuel + Renewable
Biodiesel resources + Environment friendly

How can
we get ? Feedstock?
Technolgy?

J
 Feedstocks ?
Edible Non-edible Other
oils oil sources
Cottonseed Jatropa Microalgae
Coconut Karanja Spirulina platensis algae
Sunflower Mahua Waste cooking oil
Canola Neem Animal fats
Soybean Eucalyptus Beef tallow
Castor Linseed Poultry fat
Mustard Rubberseed Fish oil
Peanut Polanga Chicken fat
Palm Yellow oleander Chlorella protothecoides
microalgae
Rapeseed
J
 Production Technology ?
1. Direct blending Problems
- Higher viscosity are faced making its use
- Acid value
as engine fuel difficult
- FFA content
- Gum formation

2. Micro-emulsions Problem
- formation of incomplete combustion
deposits
of carbon in
engine

with suitable emulsifying agents

such as alcohol mainly methanol, ethanol, propanol
or butanol to form emulsions.
J
 Production Technology ?
3. Catalytic cracking
It involves the catalytic transformation of the non-edible oils or animal fats in the
absence of air or oxygen to liquid products having fuel properties similar to diesel.
The pyrolysed material includes considerable amounts of sulphur, moisture, and
sediments but insufferable clinker, residues of carbon

4. Trans esterification
Involves there action of oil feedstock with simple alcohol moiety like methanol in
the presence of catalyst.
- Mainly methanol has been used as alcohol in transesterification reaction. Some
researchers have also adopted ethanol in trans esterification reaction.
- Due to low cost with better availability NaOH and KOH catalysts are largely used
for reaction.
J
 Trans esterification

catalyst
Triglycerides + 3 Alcohol Alkylester + Glycerol

J
 Process parameters for transesterification reaction ?
1. Molar ratio It must be noted that the trans esterification reaction is
reversible in nature and therefore large amount of alcohol is
required to keep the reaction in the forward direction

2. Catalyst concentration Rathoreetal. found out that when KOH concentration is

Normally used base catalysts are : increased from 2% to 12%, the conversion took 8h but
NaOH, KOH & CH3ONa. biodiesel yield increased from 20% to 95%.
Akhihieroetal. observed NaOH with 1 wt% concentration
resulted in highest yield for Jatropha biodiesel.

Though CH3ONa has been reported to cause emergence of

various by-products like sodium salts which must be handled as
waste products later on.

J
 Process parameters for transesterification reaction ?

3. Temperature 1. Speed up the reaction

T 2. More yield is achieved
3. Reduction of viscosity
4. Better mixing of oil with alcohol
5. Faster separation of glycerol from biodiesel

However, further more increase in temperature resulted

T significant dip in yield of biodiesel. This could be related to the
fact that at higher temperatures, the side reactions occur
more rapidly incontrast to trans esterification reaction,
resulting in lower biodiesel yield

J
 Process parameters for transesterification reaction ?

J
 Conclusion ?
1. Molar ratio of alcohol to oil varies between 6 and 12 : 1 with 10 : 1 for best results.
2. Range of temperature for optimum yield is50–60 °C for homogenous catalytic trans esterification.
3. The best amount of catalyst used is about 1.0 wt% for base catalyst (NaOH or KOH) which are the
most commonly used among homogenous catalysts.
4. Advantage of using KOH is that, on completion of reaction, mixture can be balanced with H3PO4
arising information of products like potassium phosphate which can be utilised as fertiliser
5. Mainly methanol has been used for production of biodiesel. To make biodiesel fully renewable there
is significant scope on using alcohols which are derived from bio-based resources i.e. ethanol and
from Indian perspective the use of bio-ethanol is being promoted by Government of India in its
National biofuel Policy. Among other higher alcohols, scope of butanol and pentanol is also prominent
as these are derived from bio- based resources.
6. Use of higher alcohols like ethanol does not only give fully renewable biodiesel but also improves the
fuel properties of biodiesel in comparison to use of methanol like improved lubricity, viscosity,
oxidation stability, better cloud and pour point etc.
7. Homogeneous catalysts were adopted mainly for their ability to produce biodiesel with higher yield in
lesser time and less cost but they cannot be reused. Therefore, heterogeneous catalyst offer better
choice with their reusability nature.
J
J H