BATCH STUDIES FOR TRANSESTERIFICA TION OF ACID OIL FOR BIODIESEL PRODUCTION USING HETEROGENEOUS CATALYST

The predicted shortage and high price of crude oil encouraged the search for substitute for petroleum derivatives. In the present scenario, Biodiesel, alkyl ester of fatty acid/ vegetable oil (edible/ non-edible) may be one of the option. In a developing country like India, the prohibitive cost of vegetable oil prevent their use for biodiesel production. Therefore, non-conventional feed stocks like Palm fatty acid distillate, Fatty of refined oil, acid oil etc. have emerged as the newest raw materials for the production of biodiesel. In the present study, attempts were made for production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from acid oil having high FFA. Batch studies for transesterification/ esterification were carried out to optimize the reaction parameter including the influence of : reaction temperature range 150-200 DC, mole ratio 1:6 to 1:20 quantity of solid catalyst 0.5-2% (by wt.) and reaction time 30-300 min. The process becomes more viable in many respects: tolerance of high FFA, moisture, lesser down stream processing, better quality of by-product glycerin. The biodiesel quality produced by the above process meets the specification as per ASTM/BIS. Further, the purity of biodiesel was found to be more than 99% confirmed by HPLC analysis