Techno-economical and Experimental Analysis of Biodiesel Production from Used Cooking Oil

Fossil fuel shortage is a major challenge worldwide. Therefore, research is currently underway to investigate potential renewable energy sources. Among the most of alternate energy sources for fossil fuel, biodiesel is more attractive and feasible energy source. The production of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil offers a triple-facet solution: economic, environmental, and waste management. In this work, a techno-economic analysis of a process that produces biodiesel from used cooking oil obtained from Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) canteen. The main aim is to recycle and reuse as an alternative for diesel fuel in the campus. Here, biodiesel is produced from used cooking oil through classical alkali-catalyzed transesterification. The important process parameters are alcohol-to-oil ratio, reaction time, temperature, and catalyst concentration were determined in biofuel research lab of PDPU. Results of these experiments suggest that 9:1 methanol-to-oil ratio, 50 min reaction time, 60 °C temperature, and 1.0 wt.% catalyst concentration were the optimum parameters for biodiesel production. A maximum conversion of used cooking oil to biodiesel above 93% was achieved in laboratory condition. Estimations of the unit production cost and fixed capital investment for this capacity have been calculated in detail. The fixed cost is 273,000 INR for the designed plant will have a capacity of 1000 L per day. The overall production cost of biodiesel is 28.55 INR/L. The payback period is around 3.5 year. Based on the observation that the raw materials cost is less than 5% of the total production cost. The main conclusions are that a plant with this capacity is feasible to produce biodiesel which is helpful as an alternative to diesel fuel and solve the environmental problems related to disposal.