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Biodiesel As A Alternative Fuel Source

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND

Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils, used cooking oils, and animal fats by the production process called “trans-esterification” to convert those mixtures to the chemicals which have long chain mono alkyl esters or fatty acid methyl esters which can be used as “fuel” for vehicles. Approximately, 100 pounds of vegetable oil react with 10 pounds of alcohol (commonly methanol) in the presence of a catalyst, sodium hydroxide; later, 100 pounds of biodiesel and 10 pounds of glycerol (co-product) can be produced. For the glycerol which can be used for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Therefore, biodiesel can be considered as totally natural, alternative fuel source to be available for using in most of …show more content…

During the second step, the maximum yield (around 91%) fatty acid methyl ester can be collected within 30 minutes by the ratio 6:1 (methanol to vegetable oil) with potassium hydroxide amount of 1 wt% and temperature 60°C for the reaction (Veljkovic et al., 2006). In Malaysia, many oil palm industries generate excess crude palm oil for large quantities for consumption. Palm oil is one of the four leading vegetable oils for business on the world market where it is sold with cheaper price than soya bean oil to reduce the overhead cost of biodiesel production. For previous researches, crude palm oil, methyl ester is not harmful and toxic to processing organism and also selectively extracted butanol can increase butanol productivity and production in acetone butanol fermentation (Ishizaki et al., 1999). With nowadays increasing in energy require globally, especially for transportation industry, people are highly demanded for more sustainable energy resources. Traditionally, the energy resource for transportation has been petroleum based for over more than hundred years ago; however, it is not renewable and at certain times in the future, it is may be not accessible in abundant quantities or even totally disappeared on the Earth to support industries,

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