PREPARATION OF BIODIESEL AND THE FEASIBILITY STUDY OF USING BIODIESEL IN A DIESEL ENGINE

• Main Authors: MINGCHANG HSU, 徐明璋
• Other Authors: 謝志誠
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/65572698246353367665

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 生物產業機電工程學研究所 === 89 === Diesel engines are widely used for many industrial applications because of their lower fuel consumption and higher power output. Recently, because of increases in crude oil price, limited resources of fossil oil and environmental concerns, there has been a renewed focus on vegetable oils and animal fats to make bio-diesel fuels. Numbers of studies have shown that fats and oils from renewable biological source hold promise as alternative fuels for diesel engine. In this research, a process for the production of methyl ester of fatty acids （FAME）for use as a biodiesel fuel has been studied. The essential part of the process is the transesterification of used cooking oil with alcohol, in the presence of a catalyst, to yield the FAME as a product and glycerin as a by-product. Experiments have been performed to determine the optimun conditions for the preparation of FAME. The optimun condition： the 20% methanol with 0.5% sodium hydroxide as a catalyst by weight of oil used, methanol with 99% purity, and reaction at room temperature gave the optimun conversion of 93%. And the engine power output with pure biodiesel（B100）or diesel blended with 20% biodiesel （B20）as a fuel is similar to the engine fueled by diesel. But, the smoke emissions of both B20 and B100 were 20% and 40% lower than diesel. As a result, the preparation of biodiesel from used oil could be not only a promising alternative fuel but also beneficial to our environment.