Comparative Study of Chemical and Enzymatic Processes for Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil

Crude oil prices are reaching a new high and there is an acute need for developing alternate fuels which should be economically as well as biologically feasible. In this work, biodiesel was prepared from waste cooking oil collected from a restaurant named Kruncheez (Channi Himmat, Jammu) by two methods- alkali transesterification and enzymatic transesterification. For alkali transesterification, Methyl alcohol with KOH and NaOH as a catalyst was used for the alkali transesterification process. Lipase enzyme from C. antarctica was used for the enzymatic production. FT-IR was used for determination of fatty acid content in final biodiesel. The biodiesel was characterized by its physical and fuel properties according to ASTM standards and comparison of both the processes was drawn. The viscosity of the alkali and enzymatic biodiesel was found to be 4.65 and 4.72 cSt at 40C. The viscosity of waste cooking oil measured at room temperature was 7.2 cSt. The flash point, pour point and cloud point of the alkali and enzymatic biodiesel was found to be 139C and 131C, 8C and 9C, and 13C and 11C, respectively. Acid value of the alkali and enzymatic biodiesel was found to be 0.351 and 0.459 mg-KOH/g.