Effects of catalyst types and concentrations on biodiesel production from waste soybean oil biomass as renewable energy and environmental recycling process

Biomass and agricultural derived materials have been suggested as alternative energy sources and the use of biodiesel as fuel presently a promising potential that grows rapidly due to its great contribution to the environment and to its role as a strategically source of renewable energy in substitution to diesel oil and other petroleum-based fuels. It is non-toxic, biodegradable and contributes a minimal amount of net greenhouse gases. A study was conducted to produce biodiesel from waste oils to reduce the waste and pollutions. Several important variables such as volumetric ratio, catalyst types and concentration were selected to obtain a high quality biodiesel fuel with the specification of American Standard for Biodiesel Testing Materials (ASTM D 6751) and European Norm (EN 14214). The highest biodiesel yield was obtained (68.5% ) under conditions of 3:1 oil-to-methanol molar ratio, 0.5% NaOH catalyst at 55 C reaction temperature and 250 rpm stirring speed. The results showed that biodiesel production from different oil to methanol molar ratio, catalyst types and concentrations exhibited considerable differences. Biodiesel yield was higher in NaOH than in KOH while used 0.5% as catalyst and the highest yield was obtained having 1% NaOH compared to 0.5 and 1.5% NaOH.. There was little difference in viscosity, acid value and chemical elements (Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, P etc.) at different parameters. The research investigated that biodiesel could be obtained under optimum conditions and catalyst concentrations from completely waste oil which considered as recycled of waste cooking oil.