OPTIMIZATION OF SOLAR ASSISTED BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM LINSEED OIL

Abstract

The present explored crude oil reservoirs are depleting at a much faster rate than estimated at the end of 20th century. The higher energy demand for transportation, industrialization and luxurious life are the main consequences behind this fast rate depletion. To fulfill the everlasting demand of energy, we need to look for some alternative source of energy. Biodiesel being renewable and less polluting fuel can replace the conventional diesel fuel. But the higher energy and cost of biodiesel production is not allowing the industries to look biodiesel as a conventional diesel alternative. Thus, solar energy is implemented as heating source for transesterification process to reduce the cost of biodiesel production from conventional methods. This study focuses on optimizing the yield parameters based on the Taguchi’s approach, a powerful tool to maximize biodiesel yield. A full factorial design of 27 experiments, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to investigate the influence of yield parameters at different levels. The main objective of the study is to determine the effects of molar ratio, reaction time and catalyst concentration on the production of biodiesel from linseed oil. Different yield parameters have different influence on the production of biodiesel. The different levels for yield parameters recommended were 6:1, 7.5:1 and 9:1 for molar ratio; 90 min., 105 min. and 120 min. for reaction time; and 0.5 wt%, 0.75 wt% and 1.0 wt% for catalyst (KOH) concentration, respectively. The samples are processed under different level of parameters and percentage yield for each sample is measured. The result showed that the higher the molar ratio better the yield. The optimum yield parameters were 9:1 molar ratio, 105 min. reaction time and 0.5 wt% catalyst concentrations, which produced optimum yield of 82.48%. While the maximum yield of 82.82% is attained for molar ratio 9:1, reaction time 120 min. and catalyst concentration 0.75 wt%. According to the ANOVA analysis, molar ratio is the dominating factor with 63.01% contribution.