Transesterification Reaction of Waste Cooking Oil and Chicken Fat by Homogeneous Catalysis

In the last years, biodiesel production has been on a steady increase due to it is renewable and biodegradable fuel. The process to obtain biodiesel can be carried out using different raw materials. It is commonly performed by transesterification reaction of vegetable oils with methanol and using a homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst. This work seeks to compare the results produced in transesterification of wasted cooking oil and chicken fat by homogeneous catalysis with NaOH. Due to in each case triglyceride comes from different raw materials, operation conditions differ slightly, which is more evident in the values used for the temperature. For chicken fat was used temperature variations between 35 oC and 55 oC, varying catalyst in percentages between 0.3% and 0.7% with a molar ratio 6:1 in all cases and a reaction time of 1 h. Likewise, the conditions used in the transesterification process of waste cooking oil were temperature between 50 oC and 60 oC with a molar ratio 6/1 and 9/1 for alcohol and oil, and catalyst percentage between 0.5% and 0.7% by weight. The yields obtained were between 78% and 94%, or 83% and 95%, for chicken fat and wasted cooking oil, respectively