Fast synthesis of high quality biodiesel from ‘waste fish oil’ by single step transesterification

C. Sharma, Yogesh; Singh, Bhaskar; Madhu, Devarapaga; Liu, Yun; Yaakob, Zahira

doi:10.18331/BRJ2015.1.3.3

Fast synthesis of high quality biodiesel from ‘waste fish oil’ by single step transesterification

Document Type : Short Communications

Authors

¹ Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi, Varanasi 221005, India.

² Department of Environmental Science, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer 305801, India.

³ College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, ChaoYang District, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China.

⁴ Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia.

10.18331/BRJ2015.1.3.3

Abstract

A large volume of fish wastes is produced on a daily basis in the Indian sub-continent. This abundant waste source could serve as an economic feedstock for bioenergy generation. In the present study, oil extracted from discarded fish parts was used for high quality biodiesel production. More specifically, a single step transesterification of ‘waste fishoil’ with methanol using sodium methoxide (CH₃ONa) as homogeneous catalyst under moderate operational conditions resulted in highly pure biodiesel of > 98% of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content. Characterization was performed by Fourier Transform-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (FT-NMR).

Keywords