Production and Characterization of Biodiesel from Cotton Seed Oil

Abstract

This paper present result of the research work conducted on the production of biodiesel by transesterification of cottonseed oil (new and waste) with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst (NaOH), with the aim of providing an alternative to fossil fuel which have adverse effect on the environment. To achieve these; batch transesterification process was used, which involved pre-treatment of the cottonseed oil, conversion of the oil into biodiesel, purification of the biodiesel and the its characterization. Using methanol as the alcohol and reaction temperature of 65℃ gave the optimum yield of biodiesel with valuable co-product (glycerine), 99.0% and 14.67% for new oil, and 98.33% and 14.0% for waste oil respectively. The analysis of the biodiesel produced from the new oil, shows that it has the following characteristics; specific gravity of 0.859, flash point of 115℃, pour point of -5℃, Cetane index of 50.58, kinematic viscosity of 5.7 cST, Sulphur content of 0.0002% mass. While that obtained from the waste oil are; specific gravity of 0.86, , kinematic viscosity of 6.53 cST, flash point of 117℃, pour point of -2℃, Cetane index of 51.22, Sulphur content of 0.0005% mass. These values fall within the range of the standard specification for diesel fuel (ASTM and National Soy diesel Development Board), and indicate that the biodiesel produced is essentially Sulphur free, has high cetane number (less knocking) higher lubricating effect than petro diesel, and will not cause corrosion of pipes, and can effectively serve as an alternative to petrol diesel. Hence base catalyst trans-esterification method is an effective method for biodiesel production.