Biodiesel (Fatty Acid Methyl Esters) has become one of the most promising alternative source of energy in the world. The aim of this study was to design and construct a laboratory production unit to produce 500 liters per day of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil (WVO) and to investigate the effect of two different catalysts on some properties of biodiesel production.
The biodiesel production unit was constructed at the Department of Agricultural-Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture,
Kafr El-Sheikh University, Egypt. The biodiesel production unit consisted of the two centrifugal pumps, an electrical heater and a thermostat type RTM were fixed inside the main tank and isolated by aluminum tap. The unit was provided the three electrical valves to be used for controlling vegetable oil's flow-rate and biodiesel production. The vegetable oil waste was collected from several restaurants, the food technology department, kafr elsheikh University
and from the food industry in Kafr elsheikh and Alexandria governorates. Two catalysts; (Methanol with sodium hydroxide and ethanol with sodium hydroxide) were added into the unit during the process of biodiesel production. The collected WVO was screened to remove all Food residuals first. The oil was then heated for 30 min to remove the water content. The manufactured biodiesel unit is to produce 500 liter/day of biodiesel from the WVO under local conditions. The measured energy requirements to produce 60 liters biodiesel from WVO were 1.31 kWh, 1.14 kWh and 0.97 kWh for WVO at feeding rate of 12.76 liter per min, 7.05 liter per min and 4.84 liter per min, respectively. Standard procedures were followed to determine the product properties. The flash point of biodiesel were 60°C, 64°C, 64°C, 68°C for B100 (ethanol catalyst), B100 (methanol catalyst), B20 (ethanol catalyst), B20 (methanol catalyst) respectively. The HHV for biodiesel were 41.98 MJ/kg, 41.74 MJ/kg, 42.06 MJ/kg and 41.83 MJ/kg for B100 (ethanol catalyst), B100 (methanol catalyst), B20 (ethanol catalyst), B20 (methanol catalyst) respectively.