PRODUCTION OF BIOFUEL

FROM USED COOKING OIL

via CATALYTIC CRACKING

Prepared by:
Khalisanni Khalid
INTRODUCTION
• Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel engines
• Biodiesel can be used easily because it can be
mixed at any proportion with diesel oil, hence
enabling us to apply it immediately for diesel
engines without much modification; easy
biodegradability; 10 times less poisonous
compared to the ordinary diesel oil, the waste
product is not black, less sulphur and other
aromatic contents, hence the combustion
emission produced is safe for environment and
perform less accumulation of carbon dioxide gas
in atmosphere thus lessen further global heating
effect (Chairil A. et al., 2004).
• Biodiesel is very important
alternatives energy because the
pollution of environment are
increased, plus the depletion of
conservatives petro-diesel. The
biodiesel also contribute to greener
environment where the emitted
gases contained higher
concentration of oxygen compared to
petro-diesel.
• Used cooking oil has high potential
for the production of biofuel. The
local disposal of used frying oil
becomes a huge problem because of
the large volumes involved. In the
fast-food business alone, a single
branch which serves fried foods such
as fried chicken, french fries and
burgers can produce as much as 15
liters of used frying oil per day.
Considering that there are hundreds
of these outlets in Malaysia, the total
amount generated can reach several
• The way of disposal of waste
cooking oil is an important things to
be considered. As ABPR (Animal By-
Product Regulation) has been
regulated on May 2002, no more
catering premises are capable to
sell their used cooking oil to
manufacturers for making animal
feed. Thus, the caterers has the
tendencies to dispose their used
cooking oil into the drain, which
contributes to flood, reducing the
drainage system capabilities and
aggregation of grease which cause
smelly odor and diseases.
• Alternative for the disposal of used
LITERATURE REVIEW

CATALYTIC CRACKING
• breaks complex hydrocarbons into
simpler molecules
• convert heavy hydrocarbon
feedstock into lighter fractions
CATALYST
• a material that assist a chemical reaction
but does not take part in it
• increases the yield & improved quality of
products under much less severe
operating conditions than in thermal
cracking.
• The catalysts usually used in refinery
cracking units are typically solid materials
(zeolites)
USED COOKING OIL
• Waste vegetable oil comes mainly from
industrial deep fryers in potato processing
plants, snack food factories and fast food
restaurants
• 10,593,458 tonnes of cooking oil per year
(MPOB, 2006) was produced from palm oil
• Carbon atoms in one molecule of used
cooking oil mainly contains about 15-18
carbon.
Products from used cooking oil
• Soap
• Animal feeder - except from catering
premises (ABPR-banned since May
2002 across EU)
• Fatty acid product-based
• Generation of electricity by
incinerator
• AND NOW….BIODIESEL
PREVIOUS RESEARCH
1. Transesterification
– Transesterification reactions have been studied for
many vegetable oils such as palm oil, soybean,
rapeseed, sunflower, and safflower seed.
Transesterification of vegetable oils and fats to methyl
and ethyl esters using different reactants, reaction
conditions and catalysts. Methyl esters derived from
vegetable oil (biodiesel) have good potential as an
alternative diesel fuel. The cetane number, energy
content, viscosity, and phase changes of biodiesel are
similar to those of petroleum-based diesel fuel.
Biodiesel is produced by transesterification of large,
branched triglycerides (TG) into smaller, straight-chain
molecules of methyl esters, using an alkali or acid as
catalyst (Cheng Sit Foon, Choo Yuen May, Ma Ah Ngan,
Chuah Cheng Hock, 2004).
1.1 Alkali catalyst
• For a basic catalyst, either sodium
hydroxide (NaOH) or potassium
hydroxide (KOH) should be used with
methanol or ethanol as well as any
kind of oils, refine, crude or frying (J.
M. Marchetti et. al., 2005)
1.2 Acid catalyst
• This way of production is the second
conventional way of making the
biodiesel. The idea is to use the
triglycerides with alcohol and instead of a
base to use an acid, the most commonly
used is sulfuric acid or sulfonic acid. This
type of catalyst gives very high yield in
esters but the reaction is very slow,
requiring almost always more than one day
to finish (Freedman B, Butterfield R, Pryde E,
1986)
2. Lipase as catalyst
• Lipases are enzymes used to
catalyze some reaction such as
hydrolysis of glycerol, alcoholysis
and acidolysis, but it has been
discovered that they can be used as
catalyst for tranesterification and
esterification reactions too (Nelson
LA, Folgia TA, Marmer W.N,1996)
3. Supercritical alcohol
It is easy to see from the works of Warabi
and Kusdiana and their co-workers that
alkyl esterification has a higher reaction
rate compare to transesterification. This
shows that the free fatty acid that may
be present in oils will get completely
transformed into the fuel under
transesterification.
Lately, the used of microwave for
production of biodiesel was discovered.
The production of biodiesel via microwave
is a process for the production of the
ethyl ester of used frying oil for use as a
biodiesel. The essential part of the
process is the transesterification of the
used frying oil with ethanol,in the
presence of a catalyst, to yield the ethyl
ester as a product and glycerine as a by-
product (Saiffuddin et al.,2004).
• Recent study done by Xioping Tang et.
al., (2007 ECI Conference ; The 12th
International Conference on
Fluidization) shows that dry gas, LPG,
gasoline, diesel oil, slurry, coke and
water was obtained from the catalytic
cracking process of waste edible oil at
400-700°C reaction temperature. The
oil was chosen regarding to the low raw
material cost.
• Yield based on ENGLER
distillation:
– Dry gas : 0.65
– LPG : 10.26
– Gasoline : 36.38
– Diesel oil : 26.96
– Slurry : 1.78
– Coke : 10.8
– Water : 13.17
– Conversion% : 100
– Desired product yield % : 73.56
• Limited research has been done
regarding on converting used
cooking oil to biofuel via catalytic
cracking.
• Intensive studies are recommended
in this field.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Future shortage of petroleum supply
– Energy crisis
– Fluctuation of petroleum price USD70/barrel
• Problem disposal of used cooking oil
– Animal feed
– Fatty-acid product-based
– Soap
• Environmental awareness due to exhaust
emission
– Decrease of ozone layer from petroleum
based fuel
– Environmental pollution
GOAL OF THE RESEARCH

• The goal of the study is to produce

value-added products as blending
component for the production of
biofuel.
OBJECTIVES

• To characterize the used cooking oil

(palm oil and sunflower oil based)
• To investigate the production of
biofuel in a fluidised bed reactor.
• To carry out process optimisation.
• To isolate, purify and characterize
the products (liquid, gas and residue)
obtained
SCOPE
• The research will be conducted only on 2
types of used cooking oil (palm oil, and
sunflower oil).
• Process optimization will also be carried
out, based on the following parameters:
• Pressure
• Temperature
• Yield
• Catalyst volume/ size
• Percentage yield of biofuel produced
will be used to select the optimal
condition in this study.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
• The study will focus on process
optimisation and do not include
reactor efficiency.
• Engine performance and exhaust gas
emission will be determined under
different scope of research.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Physical separation
Raw material acquisition Impurities removal
of feedstock
•residential areas
•stall
Feed characterization
•Metal content
•Calorific value
•Chemical properties

Setting up Catalytic cracking Pre-treatment

catalyst reactor process of feedstock
 Products

Liquid
Char (solid) -GC-MS Gas
- AAS -FT-IR GC
-NMR VOC

Blending samples

Characterization of
biodiesel properties

Comparison with standard

BIOFUEL for possible commercialization

 Recycled gas

Condensers V5 V7
Scrubber
Mixture of V6
steam and Flow
catalyst H2O out H2O out meter
P1

Gas collector
Heater
i.e: gas bag

H2O in H2O in

V2

‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
V4
V3
Thermocoupl Heaters
es V1
P2

Feed
Liquid collector 1

Char Glass wool

Liquid collector 2
Px

Vx = Valve Figure 1: Schematic Diagram for Fluidised Catalytic Cracking

 Table 1.1: Blending sample of diesel and liquid sample (laboratory)

Liquid sample % Methyl Ester % Characterization for diesel

Diesel % (laboratory) (MPOB) properties
(PETRONAS)

100 0 - √

95 5 - √

90 10 - √

85 15 - √

80 20 - √

75 25 - √

70 30 - √

65 35 - √

60 40 - √

55 45 - √

50 50 - √
 Table 1.2: Blending sample of diesel and methyl ester (MPOB)

Liquid sample % Methyl Ester % Characterization for diesel

Diesel % (laboratory) (MPOB) properties
(PETRONAS)

95 - 5 √

90 - 10 √

85 - 15 √

80 - 20 √

75 - 25 √

70 - 30 √

65 - 35 √

60 - 40 √

55 - 45 √

50 - 50 √
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
o Provide an alternative renewable energy
source in the form of biofuel.
o Solve the problem of disposal of used
cooking oil by converting it to value
added products.
o Establish a database on the
characterization of different types of
used cooking oil for reference in
Malaysia.
o Produce an environmental friendly
energy, biofuel which has potential to
reduce risk of green house effects and
• Produce gases for petrochemical
industries/ household.
• Application of old technology for the
noble route for biofuel production.
YEAR 2007/2008
RESEARCH SCHEDULE

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb
arch
M
l
Apri

May

June

July
ACTIVITY

Literature review / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Raw materials acquisition / / /

Feed characterization / / / / / / / /

Process development (fluidised bed catalytic / / / / / / / /

cracking) / / / / / / / /
•Effect of temperature / / / / / / / /
•Effect of pressure
•Effect of catalyst

CHARACTERIZATION OF PRODUCT

Determination of flash point (liquid) / / / / / / / / / / /

Calorific value / / / / / / / / / / /

Chemical analysis (gas, liquid, residue) / / / / / / / / / / /

YEAR 2008/2009

Apri

June
May
Sept
Aug

Nov

arch
ACTIVITY

July
Dec

Feb
Oct

Jan

M
l
CHARACTERIZATION OF PRODUCT
Determination of cloud point (liquid) / / / / / / /

Determination of color (liquid) / / / / / / /

Determination of acid value (liquid) / / / / / / /

Chemical analysis- NMR, FTIR, GC, UV-VIS- / / / / / / / /

(gas, liquid, residue)

Report writing / / /

Thesis writing / / / / /

Submission/ dateline /
Thank You