The fuel properties of methyl esters produced from canola oil- animal tallow blends by basecatalyzed transesterification

Authors : Şehmus ALTUN, Fevzi YAŞAR, Cengiz ÖNER

Pages : 2-5

View : 17 | Download : 13

Publication Date : 2010-06-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Biodiesel is an alternative diesel fuel that can be produced from renewable feedstocks such as vegetable oil or animal fats by transesterification with methanol for using in diesel engines. The viscosity and density of biodiesel fuels are important parameters due to being key fuel properties for injection and combustion process of diesel engines. These fuel properties mainly depend on the feedstock which is used in the biodiesel production. In this study, the blends containing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of food-grade canola oil/inedible animal tallow in volume basis were prepared and converted into methyl esters by base-catalyzed transesterification. Effect of inedible animal tallow-canola oil blends on the viscosity and density of methyl esters were investigated. Experimental results showed that the kinematics viscosity of methyl esters increased as animal tallow ratio increased in the feedstock. Besides, it was observed that density did not change much.
Keywords : Canola oil, inedible animal tallow, Biodiesel production, Fuel properties