CHAPTER I:

PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

A. Introduction
Climate change and resources that are not sure if it will last are some of the
motives people uses to invent things that will help us in our daily lives.
Discoveries of huge petroleum deposits kept gasoline and diesel cheap for
decades, and biodiesels were forgotten. However, with the recent rise of oil
prices, along with the problems about global warming, biodiesels has been
gaining popularity. Gasoline are actually known as fossil fuels because it is made
from decomposed plants and animals that have been buried underground for
millions of years.
Diesel fuel also known as diesel oil is used as fuel for diesel engines. Several
grades of diesel fuel are classified as: “light middle” and “middle” for trucks and
automobiles while “heavy” for trains, ships, and stationary engines. The average
value of diesel here in the Philippines 40.78 Philippine peso with a minimum of
34.90 Philippine peso and a maximum of 48.90 Philippine peso and that changes
every month.
I would like to perform this project to help out those people struggling with
their budget to use in their automobiles and to also use a much more budget-
friendly improvised diesel. This project can also give us the assurance we need
that resources of fuels that we will use is limitless. I came up to something that is
usually being used in our home so that everyone can use it.

B. Background of the Study

Cooking oil is a fat, animal or synthetic fat that is used for cooking. It is also
used in flavoring or in food preparation. Heating an oil changes its characteristics.
Many people are not conscious about their actions and how they impact the
environment. When it comes to used cooking oils, instead of recycling it people
tend to throw them away that they didn’t know that it can be recycled. In the US
more than 2.5 billion gallons of cooking oil is produced every year and it has been
a major issue especially when we are talking about disposal but because of
innovation, used cooking oil can be converted into biodiesel that can be used to
power up machines and even vehicles. Over the years, studies have showed that
fossil fuels are not that reliable anymore because it’ll be gone down which means
in a decade or so it will no longer be the go to option to power vehicles and
machines. Hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and households prepare food with
cooking oil. If you were to determine the amount of used cooking oil, more jobs
wil be created, fuel security will be in place, the environment will be protected
and the cost of clean up will reduce.

1
 Biodiesel is made through the process of transesterification. When it comes
to biodiesel, the transesterification of vegetable oils, animal fats or waste cooking
oils is the process behind this product. In this process, a glyceride reacts with an
alcohol (usually methanol or ethanol) in the presence of catalyst. Biodiesel will
actually be a very important factor in the next few years. The reason why I am
conducting this project is because fossil fuels are depleting very quickly and also
the use of fossil fuels are some of the causes harmful gases are released in the
atmosphere and all of these gases are not biodegradable. On the other hand,
biodiesel is completely biodegradable with the use of these used cooking oil as
you can see it is completely recyclable. It is a known fact that everyday gallons of
cooking oil is thrown. These harmful wastes add to the pollution in land and water
wherein these oils can be used effectively to produce the harmless biodiesel.
Because of the depleting fossil fuels, prices like petroleum are going higher and
higher. The governments of the countries where there is shortage of petroleum has
to spend o the import of petroleum products thus, disrupting the economy
progress.
We are all familiar with the concept of global warming. Earth is currently
going through a period of global warming. Average worldwide temperatures are
increasing rapidly. Factors which are contributing to the scene of global warming
are many but burning of fossil fuels show that it does give a rise to rapid
increasing of carbon dioxide amount in the atmosphere. But fortunately, there is a
solution starting and used cooking oil is one of them. If we contribute by making
small changes then it will surely be noticeable in the long run.

C. Statement of the Problem

Global warming and not enough resources for our daily lives is a huge
problem that will affect us as a human. This study will help us have limitless
resources of biodiesels. This is also to lessen the amount of carbon dioxide to
avoid the global warming to be worse or to be at its worst.

 General
1. To produce a budget friendly biodiesel used for different kinds of
engines in our daily lives.
2. Recycling used cooking oils is preferable for disposal

 Specific
1. Converting used cooking oil into a fuel
2. To avoid global warming and other types of pollutions in land, water,
and air.

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D. Formulate Hypothesis
This project that I am conducting is possible, we can actually use a used
cooking oil as a substitute for diesel because biodiesel is a diesel that is made by
reacting any kinds of oils with other common chemicals. Biodiesel may be used in
any diesel automotive engine in its pure form or blended with petroleum-based
diesel. No modifications are required, and the result is less-expensive, renewable,
environment-friendly, and clean-burning fuel.

E. Significance of the Study

The role of biodiesel is not to replace the petroleum diesel but to help create
a balanced energy with the most benefit to human. Biodiesel is one of the several
alternative fuels designed to extend the usefulness of petroleum, and longevity
and cleanliness of diesel engines.
This study’s ultimate goal is to contribute in building a stronger, more self-
sufficient community by doing a community-based biodiesel production model.
This study can lead to smaller trade deficit. Rather than importing other countries’
natural resources, we could be using our own living resources to power our
environment and enhance our economies. Producing a do-it-yourself biodiesel
will save foreign exchanges and allow developing countries to put more of their
resources into health, education, and other services. This study can also make a
result of cleaner air and it can cause less global warming. Biodiesel contain
carbon that was taken out of the atmosphere by plants and trees as they grew. The
fossil fuels that are used to create diesel are adding huge amounts of stored carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere where it traps the Earth’s heat like a heavy blanket and
causes the world to warm.

F. Scope and Limitation

The limitation of biodiesel from the viewpoint of sustainable fuel
production is that it does not offer a large scalable solution to replace gasoline.
Biodiesel’s promise lies mostly in its potential to replace diesel to some degree
for vehicles which already run on diesel and its role in a possible shift toward
increasing use of vehicle. Given the costs of gasoline, biodiesel production is
likely to continue to increase in the coming years. However, this study will only
focus on the used cooking oil to be a biodiesel and not the other types of oil like
vegetable oil and palm oils. This study will also not include using the biodiesel in
diesel engines but only in vehicles. This project will explain how waste cooking
oil can be used as a source to produce biodiesel as a substitute to diesel.

3
G. Definition of Terms
Climate Change- a change in global or regional climate patters, in particular a
change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely
to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the late fossil
fuels.

Diesel- a heavy petroleum fraction used as fuel in diesel engines.

Biodiesel- name called for anything that you can substitute to diesel.

Catalyst- a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself
undergoing any permanent chemical change.

Global Warming- a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth’s

atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by the increased
level of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.

Transesterification- this is the process behind conventional biodiesel. In the

transesterification process, a glyceride reacts with an alcohol (typically ethanol or
methanol) in the presence of catalyst forming fatty acid alkyl esters and an
alcohol.

4
 CHAPTER II:
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature
Biodiesel is a trade name of the fuel obtained in the process of transesterification of
vegetable oils. This method is used for the production of diesel engine fuel having the
properties close to diesel oil from petroleum. The viscosity of this oil is lower than that of
vegetable oil. Often the name biodiesel has been used for fatty acid methyl esters
(FAME) from rape oil, which are main components of biodiesel in Europe.

The economic effectiveness of the production of fatty acid methyl esters applied in
the production of the biofuel has been diminishing. One way of reducing the production
costs for biodiesel fuels is the use of nonedible oils, which tend to be considerably
cheaper than edible vegetable oils. The technology of simultaneous transesterification of
used and fresh frying oils was industrially introduced at the end of the ninety nineties.

Recycled or waste oils have evolved as popular sources for the production of
biodiesel, as they are inexpensive and offer the additional environmental benefit of using
substances, which would otherwise have to be disposed of.

Long recognized for its environmental benefits, biodiesel is renewable, nontoxic,

biodegradable, and sulfur-free, emitting 80% fewer hydrocarbons, 60% less carbon
dioxide, and 50% less particulate matter than petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is 11% oxygen
by weight and, therefore, burns more completely than petro-diesel. In fact, a 20% blend
with petro-diesel in trucks and buses would eliminate the black smoke (unburned fuel)
emitted during acceleration.

The first article which reported on successful engine tests for methyl-, ethyl-, and
1-butylesters produced from used frying oil appeared in 1983. At the same time,
recycled-frying oils were studied as raw material by Mittelbach and Remschmidt, who
later developed a commercial process for converting waste oils from households and
restaurants as well as fatty waste from slaughter houses and sewage plants into biodiesel.
Since dried, mechanically purified waste oil is sold at about the half price of vegetable
oils, then use of such materials makes sense from an economic point of view.

In Austria, recycled-frying oil is now an established alternative source of fatty

material for the production of biofuels. Recycled-frying oil methyl esters (RFO-ME) have
been commercially produced since 1992 and have been used to fuel buses serving the city
of Graz. In 2004, fifty buses running on RFO-ME are covering a total annual distance of
about 3,000,000 km, and in 2005, more than a hundred buses were operating on recycled-
frying oil methyl esters. So far hardly any fuel related problems have been reported. The
physical properties of RFO-ME slightly differ from FAME. So values for viscosity and
carbon residue of recycled-frying oil methyl esters tend to be slightly higher. Moreover,

5
the freezing point is higher than that of FAME, so in Graz, during winter, RFO-ME was
blended with petroleum diesel. On the whole, the Graz city bus project is considered a
sweeping success, which has found broad acceptance by the public and earned its
initiators.

Almost all currently used technologies of vegetable oil conversion into diesel
engine fuel require raw materials of high quality, among others of high triglyceride
content. The classical method for obtaining methyl esters of fatty acids is based on
alkaline-catalyzed transesterification. It suffers from many disadvantages. First of all this
process precedes too slowly and stops before the end. Moreover, it cannot be used in the
case of substrates having high free fatty acid content, which neutralize the alkaline
solution and form soaps.

Recently new technologies have been introduced, which make the conversion of
used edible oils and waste animal fats to the fuel appropriate for diesel engines possible,
following all requirements of environmental protection and economical improvement. In
all the cases these technologies require the substrates derived from oils or waste fats of
defined physical and chemical properties.
This work presents the results of the studies on the changes in the properties of
the substrate derived from used oil after treatment with a two-component mixture of
various adsorbents.

Related Studies
The demand of fossil fuel increases day to day, the need to find a renewable
energy sources becomes more important all over the world. Bio-diesel is produced from
vegetable oils has characteristics similar to petroleum-derived diesel oil and has received
considerable attention and used as a substitute fuel for diesel engines. The performance of
both vegetable oils and their esters were promising alternatives as fuel for diesel engine
when the vegetable oil fuels and their methyl esters on a direct injected, four stroke, and
single cylinder diesel engine. The emission of nitrogen oxides (NOX)from vegetable oil
and its blends were lower than that of pure diesel fuel. The researchers proved that
vegetable oil and its blends were potentially good substitute fuels for diesel engine.
Producing biodiesel from cheap feed stocks could become easier and more
environmentally friendly thanks to scientists and researchers in all over the world.
In1900, Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his new compression ignition engine at the World
Exhibition in Paris running on peanut oil. In 1911 he wrote “The engine can be fed with
vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture in the
countries that will use it. “It was about this time that new drilling technology and
exploration techniques were developed and together these ushered in the age of cheap
and plentiful fossil fuels. An alternative to the use of biodiesel is the use of vegetable oil
or animal fats as a fuel. The use of biodiesel can extend the life of diesel engine because
it is more lubricating than petroleum diesel fuel. Biodiesel is produced from renewable
vegetable oils/animal fats hence improves the fuel or energy security and the economy
independence.

6
 Biodiesel and waste vegetable oil are both produced and refined from used
vegetable oil, though each with different degrees of difficulty and involvement. Biodiesel
can be used in diesel-fueled vehicles without any modification of the engine.
Additionally, biodiesel can be mixed with petroleum diesel to create different grades of
fuel that are labeled based on the percentage of biodiesel in the blend; for example, B10
is 10% biodiesel, 90%petroleum diesel. This means that in times of biodiesel scarcity,
vehicles can use a mix of fuels and still function the same way. Though biodiesel has
advantages in terms of its flexibility and applicability, the process to create it is more
complicated than WCO. Biodiesel is created from animal or vegetable oil that is modified
through a process called Transesterification, during which triglycerides in the oil are
converted to methyl and ethyl esters and glycerin. The Transesterification process is
presented terms of ease of acquisition and emissions reductions. Waste food oil can be
obtained from any restaurant or dining hall that uses vegetable oil for frying food;
generally this waste oil is either disposed of or given away, so there is no cost to
obtaining this fuel source. Biodiesel is much cleaner than fossil-fuel diesel. It can be used
in any diesel engine with no need for modifications. In fact diesel engines run better and
last longer with biodiesel and it can easily be made from common waste product, used
cooking oil. Biodiesel is better for the environment because it is made from renewable
resources and has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel (UNH Biodiesel
Group). It is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar.
Waste oils and fats can be used as renewable fuel resources. Conversion of
waste oils and fats to bio diesel fuel is one possibility but poses some difficulties
such as in the use of toxic or caustic materials and by-product disposal.
Conversion to biodiesel may also decrease the economic attractiveness of using
waste oils as fuels. Using relatively unmodified oils or fats eliminates the
problems associated with toxic and caustic precursor chemicals and residual
biodiesel alkalinity as the oil is used without altering its chemical properties. One
possibility for the disposal of these products is as a fuel for transport or other uses.
Conversion of waste oils and fats to biodiesel fuel has many environmental
advantages over petroleum diesel fuel. However it is not commercially available in
Australia and the ‘back-yard’ production of biodiesel may present serious risks as
the process uses methanol, a toxic and flammable liquid, and odium or potassium
hydroxide, both of which are caustic. By-product disposal may present further
difficulties and environmental considerations may preclude production in sensitive
areas. The use of waste material as a source of alternative fuel is a practice of
increasing popularity among there searchers worldwide. One such high value
waste product is waste cooking oil (WCO) or abused fryer oil. These can be used
for making biodiesel, thus helping to reduce the cost of water treatment in these
where age system and assisting in the recycling of resources. Generally cooking
oil used for frying are sunflower oil, palm oil, coconut oil etc. as they are easily
available, and especially so of the coconut oil which is abundantly available in
south India. It is well known fact that, when oils such as these are heated for an
extended time (abuse), they undergo oxidation (degradation) and give rise to
oxides.

7
 CHAPTER III:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Materials
 Used cooking oil
 Clear plastic container
 Sauce pan
 Coffee filter
 Distilled water
 Isopropyl alcohol
 Lye solution
 Phenolphthalein solution

8
Methodology
1. Obtain used cooking oil

2. Examine the oil

3. Pour your oil into clear plastic containers

4. Heat the oil to 95 degreesF

9
5. Use coffee filter to pour oil through

6. Reheat the oil to 140 degreesF

7. Pour the reheated oil in the container to settle.

8. Transfer the oil into a clean container

9. Dissolved lye into a distilled water

10. Add oil to isopropyl alcohol

10
 11. Add phenolphthalein solution
12. Add 0.1% lye solution to your oil and alcohol mixture
13. Ready your main quantity of oil

Data and Result

Specific Fuel Consumption
With engine load for diesel, waste-cooking oil blends

Specific fuel consumptions or waste cooking oils biodiesel blends (B10, B20 and B30)
are higher than diesel fuel. Biodiesel blends showed increase in fuel consumption
approximately proportional to the amount of biodiesel blended to diesel fuel. Diesel
engines consumes more fuel than diesel oil at the same power.

Thermal Efficiency

Thermal efficiencies are slightly lower for biodiesel blends compared to diesel fuel at all
engine loads. The decrease in thermal efficiency for biodiesel blends was due to the poor

11
combustion characteristics and volatility of waste cooking-oil biodiesel compared to
diesel fuel. Density of waste cooking-oil biodiesel was higher than diesel fuel.

Gas Temperature

the effect of waste cooking-oil biodiesel and its blends with diesel oil on exhaust gas
temperature at different engine loads. Exhaust gas temperature increases with increase of
engine load for all fuels. Thermal efficiency decrease for biodiesel blends about diesel
fuel led to increase of heat loss in exhaust gases and increase of fuel consumption.

CO2 Emissions

the variation of CO2 emission with engine load for waste cooking-oil biodiesel blends.
CO2 emission is more for biodiesel and its blends than that for diesel fuel. The rising
trend of CO2 emission with engine load was due to the higher fuel entry as the load
increased. CO2 emissions for diesel-biodiesel blends were higher than diesel oil and it is
increased with the increase in blend proportion. CO2emission increase was due to higher
oxygen content in biodiesel blends.

12
 CHAPTER IV:
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION, AND CONCLUSION

Summary
Recycled waste cooking oil is harmful to health, but it is not environmental
friendly to dispose used cooking oil just like that. Production of petroleum diesel makes
global warming worse because of the carbon dioxide that it produces from burning fossil
fuels. The best solution is to used it for industrial purposes, namely to reproduce into
biodiesel. Waste cooking oil is collected from chip cracker Factory in Johor. This project
is to produce biodiesel from waste cooking oil using pilot plant and the biodiesel tested in
the laboratory. The pilot plants are continuous system to produce biodiesel. The biodiesel
was blended with diesel oil to get B5 and B10 grade biodiesel. It produces biodiesel. The
application of this biodiesel has enabled the company to use its waste cooking oil without
having to dispose it and this has save cost to the company. The other advantage is that it
has significantly help to preserve environment and as well as conversion of waste to
useful energy. The biodiesel plant has also motivated the staff towards thinking about
environment and also alternative energy thus sustaining its operation.

Recommendation
In the case of our country which is the Philippines, we have a lot of resources but
we shouldn’t wait for it to run out and risk our economy’s wealth in suggesting foreign
transportation for these products so I gladly recommend the product that I experimented.
Biodiesel is proved to be the best replacement for diesel because of its unique properties
like significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, non-sulphur emissions, non-
particulate matter pollutants, low toxicity and biodegradability. Cost of biodiesel
produced from virgin vegetable oil through transesterification is higher than that of fossil
fuel, because of high raw material cost. To minimize the biofuel cost, these days, waste
cooking oil is used as feedstock. In the case of waste cooking oil containing high
percentage of free fatty acid, alkaline catalyst reacts with free fatty acid and forms soap
by saponification reaction. Also, it reduces the biodiesel conversions because with this
experiment, I’ve shown the right steps to produce do-it-yourself biodiesel.

13
Conclusion
Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil ensures supply of sustainable and renewable
fuel. Water content, alcohol type, alcohol to oil ratio, catalyst type and concentration, free
fatty acids, reaction time, pH, stirrer speed and temperature are the parameters which
have great impact on transesterification process. Comparative analysis of physical and
chemical properties was carried out which concluded that the properties of biodiesel
obtained from waste cooking oil lie within the limits of European biodiesel standard EN
14214. Emission performance of diesel engine for diesel-biodiesel blends have shown
following results. Increase in CO2 emissions is recorded with increasing load but
decrease in emissions is recorded with increase in concentration of biodiesel in blends.
Hydrocarbon emissions are recorded lower for higher loads and higher biodiesel
concentrations of biodiesel in blends. Carbon monoxide emissions were lower for higher
loads while decrease in CO emissions are recorded with higher concentration of biodiesel
in blends. Biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil has economic and environmental
benefits over conventional fuels. Romania has existing infrastructure for production and
usage of biodiesel from waste cooking oil. Furthermore, it can be concluded that energy
share of biodiesel in fuel market helps in achieving EU emission targets as well as to
fulfil Kyoto protocol limitations.
Biodiesel is an effective alternative fuel for conventional diesel and can be
directly used as fuel in a diesel engine without any modifications to the engine. It has
many positives like high biodegradability, reduction in green house gas emissions , non-
sulfur emissions , non-particulate matter pollutants, low toxicity, excellent lubricity and is
obtained from renewable source like vegetable oils, animal fat etc. Transesterification is
the most common method for biodiesel production. Waste cooking oil is a cost effective
and promising feedstock . WCO with higher FFA content results is decrease in the
overall yield. In this case, esterification is to be done before Transesterification
.Homogeneous catalysts like NaOH and KOH are known for having less reaction time
and moderate reaction conditions but oils with high FFA may result in soap formation
which reduces the overall yield and the recovery if catalyst is difficult. Heterogeneous
catalysts have better separation and better quality of product but they have extreme
reaction conditions. For carrying Transesterification, batch reactors are preferred over
continuous because of easy assemblage , maintenance, inexpensive and easy to design .
Obtaining higher yield of product depends upon the quality of oil used. The parameters
affecting the reaction were identified to be methanol to oil molar ratio, the catalyst used
and its amount and the reaction temperature . The produced biodiesel mixed with
proportions of petroleum diesel (B20 : 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) showed
significant reduction in CO,HC and smoke emissions .

14
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