Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil Using Ethanol Produced from Sugar or Dates Syrup

Global oil prices have risen due to rising energy usage and petroleum depletion. Waste cooking oil is a potential source of biodiesel raw materials. Biodiesel is a source of renewable energy and a fuel that could replace petroleum-derived diesel in the future. The novelty of this study was to investigate the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil using ethanol produced from dates syrup. In this study biodiesel was made from used cooking oil and various alcohols by the transesterification method with different catalysts for comparison. To produce biodiesel from used the transesterification process was carried out by mixing 3 g of the catalyst with 60 ml of alcohol (70%) and adding 300ml of waste cooking oil at a temperature of 60°C. The best result, that had the highest biodiesel yield, which was 302.5 ml, was the biodiesel made from using commercial ethanol as alcohol and KOH as a catalyst. This study indicated that there was no significant difference in the yields of biodiesel and the by-product glycerin between groups, but the density and viscosity of petroleum diesel were much lower than the biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil, meaning that the biodiesel could have more applications than petroleum diesel. It was concluded that the biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil and dates syrup ethanol could be used as an alternative fuel and source of renewable environmentally friendly energy. However, it is considered that more studies are needed to determine the effects of using biodiesel produced on engine performance.