Determination of Optimal Alkaline Catalyst Concentration for the Maximum Production of Biodiesel from Edible and Non-Edible Oils

Abstract

The profitability of biodiesel production largely depends on the understanding of all the processes involved, especially the optimal values of the transesterification process parameters. In this study, both edible (groundnut oil and sesame oil) and non-edible oils (pongamia and madhuca oil) were used to determine the optimal catalyst concentration for the biodiesel production process. The values obtained as 1% for edible oils and 1.1 and 1.2 % for non-edible oils and these gave biodiesel yield fraction of 0.95, 0.9, 0.73 and 0.71 of groundnut oil, sesame oil, pongamia oil and madhuca oil respectively.