Biodiesel Production Under part Microwave Synthesis

Abstract

Adverse environmental impacts of fossil fuels, dearth of crude oil reserves and escalating demand for energy has led to the search for alternative fuel which is inexhaustible and imperishable. Biodiesel is the best substitute to Petro-diesel. Biodiesel could be used as pure fuel or as blend with petro diesel, commonly known as Biodiesel blends. Biodiesel is a mixture of fatty acid alkyl esters produced from vegetable oil or animal fat. It is produced both from edible and non-edible oils, among which using non-edible oils is fruitful to avoid the issue of fuel v/s food, moreover edible oils are expensive than non-edible oils. There are various non-edible oils but among them jatropha oil is widely used as it is found locally and can be easily cultivated on waste lands. It has a lot of advantages i.e it is biodegradable, has higher flash point, less carbon monoxide emission compared to diesel fuel, along with advantages there are many disadvantages like higher NOx emissions, faces cold start problems also fuel pumping difficulty due to higher viscosity. There are four methods of producing Biodiesel i.e Direct use and Blending, Microemulsion, Thermal cracking and Transesterification. Among all these methods of producing Biodiesel; transesterification is widely adopted. Biodiesel can be produced under various novel techniques such as ultrasound-assisted transesterification and microwave-assisted transesterification. Here in this project work a novel technique “Microwave Synthesis” for production of Biodiesel is used. In microwave, heating takes place based on the selective absorption of microwave irradiations by the polar molecules whereas non-polar molecules are inert to them. Experimental work is carried out and discussed extensively for jatropha oil feedstock. This technique offers a trouble-free and fast route for the production of Biodiesel. In this research project different procedures to produce Biodiesel are followed such as Inside microwave where the entire reaction mixture is exposed to microwave radiations, the second procedure where a part of methanol was added first and then the later one, third procedure with heterogeneous catalysts using same procedure as second and last was about doing the production without catalyst. The conversions obtained by the above methods are 84.85%, 94.27%, 96.43%, 86.48%, 90.55% respectively. Calculation of conversion was done, to get the maximum yield of Biodiesel. Also, parametric analysis was done, kinetic study for overall homogeneous, heterogeneous and without catalyst was done and also engine performance and exhaust gas analysis is also done wherein it was observed that there was slight increase in the NOx emissions. Through studies, it is reported that this technique enhances reaction rate and reduces reaction time from hours to few minutes. However, this technology has a wide application and needs to be further investigated for scale up for industrial application.