Characterization of Crude Palm Oil (CPO), Corn Oil and Waste Cooking Oil for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

Biodiesel production is the reaction of raw oils with mixing and heating within catalyst and methanol. The raw oils usually come from vegetable oils and animal fats. Vegetable oils are a promising feedstock for biodiesel production since they are renewable in nature. Nevertheless, the physical properties of biodiesel pose some acute problems when used in an unmodified engine. It is important to diesel and biodiesels because it impacts components such as the fuel pump. Therefore, this paper intends to investigate the properties of biodiesel samples in terms of viscosity, density, flash point and acid values at different bio lipids and different mixing time. The evaluation is carried out on the three types of biodiesels: crude oil, crude palm oil, corn oil, and waste cooking oil. Methanol was chosen over the others for the transesterification process because it was cheaper. The esterification process, which reduces the amount of free fatty acids in the crude oil, will be performed with the help of an acid catalyst. Alkaline catalysts, in contrast, are used for the transesterification process. The comparison of all the samples shows that CPO is the better biodiesel than the other due to the physical properties of kinematic viscosity, density and flashpoint.