Sulfonated Activated Sugarcane Bagasse as Heterogeneous Catalyst for Biodiesel Production From Waste Cooking Oil via Microwave Irradiation

摘要

In the last decade, high consumption of fossil fuels has led to a serious energy crisis because of the increased energy demand for industrialization and modernization. It caused many environmental concerns because of the greenhouse gas emission along with energy security issues. These fossil fuels resources have been decreasing day by day. These issues prompted the research to find out the feasible, economical and environment friendly alternative resources of energy. Production of biodiesel is getting high concern in the world because of its unique characteristics such as biodegradable, non-toxic and sustainable source of energy. Biodiesel production using edible oils, nonedible oils and animal fats through transesterification process is rapidly increasing because of governmental incentives but still it requires cost effectiveness because biodiesel production using edible feedstock can create a huge food crisis. Conventional heating method to produce biodiesel is also time taking and high energy consumption. Therefore, the research reveals that among various waste resources, waste cooking oil is the most suitable feedstock to produce biodiesel because it is of low cost and easily available in large amount. In the present work, production of biodiesel was done using waste cooking oil and sugarcane bagasse derived heterogeneous solid acid catalyst using microwave irradiation. Catalyst was prepared by varying the sulfonation time of 8h and 10h at 150°C and reaction was run at 60°C for 10 minutes and catalyst was characterized by using different techniques i.e. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and product was analyzed by High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The catalyst prepared at 8h gave the highest conversion 80%.