Optimization of Biodiesel Production From Palm Oil

Optimization of biodiesel production from palm oil, using a heterogeneous
catalyst from natural sources.

As you start your day and want to go somewhere, the most likely use of transportation is a
motor vehicle. And what predominantly pushes the motor vehicle to go forward is fuel. Till
this day non-renewable fossil fuels are the driving force for the worlds energy production.
Other energy sources such as wind, solar etc have been tried, nevertheless, the
sustainability of these energy sources is not guaranteed for long term reliabilities. There is,
however, light at the end of this dark tunnel, a new energy source that may predictably be
able to replace the use of fossil fuel resources in a clean and environmentally friendly way
thoroughly is Bio-diesel.
Bio-diesel as defined by M.E Borges et al., 2011 is a fuel that comprises of mono-alkyl
esters of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable sources such as vegetable oils and
animal fats. These vegetable oils include varieties such as canola, palm kernel sunflower;
palm and coconut oil and have been extensively studied as feed stocks for bio-diesel
production. The main disadvantage of using these oils for bio-diesel production is the high
combustible prices compared to that of fossil based diesel fuel.

Biodiesel fuels have many advantages, in that they lead to a reduction in CO2, CO, SO2,
unburned hydrocarbon, smoke opacity and particulate matter emissions released by diesel
engines. According to Ittipon Worapun et al., 2011, amongst the feed stocks with the
potential to produce biodiesel, palm oil stands out as being the second most abundant oil in
the world next to soybean oil.

In Bio-diesel production, the triglycerides present in numerous sources namely: animal fats,
waste oil, oil from algae, edible oil and non edible oil are taken through the trans-
esterfication process with methanol in the presence of an acid, base or biocatalyst to
produce glycerol and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) as by-products (Sanjay, 2013: 95-99) .
This reaction of trans-esterfication for Bio-diesel production can be carried out using both
heterogeneous (acidic, basic, enzymic) and homogenous (acidic, basic) catalysts. As stated
by (M.E Borges et al., 2011: 2840-2844): The base-catalysed trans-esterfication of oils is
more favourable reaction as it takes place faster and gives high yields in a short period
reaction time than its counterpart acidic catalyst. The enzyme-catalysed trans-esterfication
reaction is carried out at moderate temperatures with relatively high yields, although, this
process is not favoured because of high enzyme costs.
Although trans-esterfication reaction using a base as a catalyst in process yields high
conversion levels of triglycerides to biodiesel in a short reaction time, the reaction has quite
a number of drawbacks. 1. The process uses high amounts of energy 2. The base catalyst
utilized generates a certain amount of water which cannot be avoided owing to the reaction
of the hydroxide (OH
-
) with methanol (CH
3
OH), this water formation advances in the
hydrolysis of the esters, and as a result, a soap is formed. 3. The soap formation not only
decreases the yield of Biodiesel, but, a difficulty is experienced in the separation of glycerol
and the ester. 4. Overall in this homogeneous method the regeneration of the catalyst is
technically complicated, large amounts of water are needed to separate the catalyst and
clean the resulting products.

As it stands, heterogeneous catalysts are very important for biodiesel production as these
catalysts have many advantages over homogeneous catalysts. They are 1. Non-corrosive 2.
Pose no threat to the environment and present fewer disposal problems. In addition, the use
of heterogeneous catalysts does not produce soaps through free fatty acid neutralization or
triglyceride saponification. They are also much easier to separate from liquid products,
reusable and they can be designed to give higher selectivity, activity and longer catalyst
lifetimes (Sanjay, 2013: 95-99).

The use of a heterogeneous catalyst is promising to reduce the present high production cost
of Biodiesel making it competitive with petroleum-based diesel fuels. Therefore, research is
being directed towards the development of environment friendly and cost-effective
heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production. Recently, various heterogeneous catalysts
derived from renewable materials (natural resources) have been reported in various
literatures for conversion of oils to biodiesel.

The heterogeneous catalysts derived from renewable resources have been presented and
showed increasing, interest for biodiesel synthesis. It is learned from the present review that
availability, reusability, catalytic activity and lower cost are extremely important to be a
successful commercial catalyst as these have a direct effect on production cost of biodiesel.
This heterogeneous catalyst has to have very high commercial prospects, especially in
biodiesel industries, as the catalyst should be prepared at nominal cost from the waste
materials. The heterogeneous catalysts produced are biodegradable, environmentally
friendly, their large scale use will pose no disposal problem and the discovery means a value
addition to the waste generated. These could eliminate the wastes and produce biodiesel
with cost-effectiveness. In addition to biodiesel production, these eco-friendly waste catalysts
may also find application in some other organic reactions.

References

1. Teong, K et al.2010. Biodiesel production from palm oil via heterogeneous trans-
esterfication : Optimization study. Taylor and Francis, 197(12):1597-1611
2. Witoon, Thongthai et al. 2014. Biodiesel production from trans-esterfication of palm
with methanol over a CaO supported on biomodal meso-macroporous silica catalyst.
3. Dermibas, A. 2008. Biodiesel a realistic fuel alternative for diesel engines. London:
Springer-Verlag
4. Borges, M.E and Diaz. 2012. Recent developments on heterogeneous catalysts for
Biodiesel production by oil esterification and tran-esterification reactions: A review.
Renewable and sustainable energy news, 12. http://www.elsevier.com/locate/rser.
[10 May 2014]
5. Sanjay, B. 2013. Heterogeneous catalysts derived from natural resources for
biodiesel production: A review, 3(6). http://www.isca.in [10 May 2014].
6. Worapun, I. et al. 2011. Optimization of Biodiesel production from crude palm oil
using ultrasonic irradiation assistance and response surface methodology.
http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com [10 May 2014].

Optimization of Biodiesel Production From Palm Oil

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Optimization of biodiesel production from palm oil, using a heterogeneous

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