Production and Testing of Coconut Oil Biodiesel Fuel and its Blend

Many researchers have successfully worked on generating energy from different alternative sources including solar and biological sources such as the conversion of trapped energy from sunlight to electricity and conversion of some renewable agricultural products to fuel. This work considers the use of coconut oil for the production of alternative renewable and environmental friendly biodiesel fuel as an alternative to conventional diesel fuel. Test quantities of coconut oil biodiesel were produced through transesterification reaction using 100g coconut oil, 20.0% ethanol (wt% coconut oil), 0.8% potassium hydroxide catalyst at 65°C reaction temperature and 120 min. reaction time. The experiment was carried out three times and average results evaluated. Low yield of the biodiesel (10.4%) was obtained. The coconut oil biodiesel produced was subsequently blended with petroleum diesel and characterized as alternative diesel fuel through some ASTM standard fuel tests. The products were further evaluated by comparing specific gravity and viscosity of the biodiesel blend, the raw coconut oil and conventional petroleum diesel.