Mr. NWABUOKEI POLYCARP IKECHUKWU
Publication Title The Effects of Process Variables on Biodisel Production from Variuos Catalyst Typesuction from Castor Seed Oil Using NaOH catalyst
Publication Type journal
Publisher International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Publication Authors Nwabuokei polycarp Ikechukwu, Joseph Tagbo Nwabanne
Year Published 2020-08-12
Abstract This research work investigated the effects process variables involved in biodiesel production has on the rate of conversion taking different catalyst types into consideration. Castor seed oil was used as feed stock. The characterization of the castor seed oil was done using American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The castor seed oil was then mixed with methanol and four catalysts (NaOH, KOH, H2SO4, and H2PO4) to undergo a transesterification reaction separately. The transesterification reactions were repeated with varying catalyst weight, oil to methanol ratio, reaction time and reaction temperature. High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze the various biodiesel samples produced to identify the level of conversion to methyl ester and also identify the compositions of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs).Optimal value of each of the reaction with different catalyst show that the optimalreaction conditions was obtained at a temperature of 333k, Molar Ratio of 8, Catalyst weight of 3kg and a maximum reaction time of 97mins, with KOH catalyst having the highest conversion 95.42%, followed by NaOH catalyst with a conversion of 93.77%. H2PO4 catalyst gave a conversion of 62.46%, while H2SO4, catalyst gave the lowest conversion of 57.77%. This research work has shown that reaction parameters combination determines the rate of conversion in biodiesiel production not minding the catalyst type used. It also defined the optimum parameter conditions for different catalyst types.