Synthesis of biodiesel from coconut waste via in-situ transesterification

Abstract

The increasing amount of environmental pollution through carbon emission from combustion clean alternative energy is in urgent need. Through the past years, a lot of researchers have producing biodiesel which can be made from natural elements such as sustainable and non-toxic fuel. The focuses have been varied from the variaty of feedstock plants and recyclable materials, hence defined its renewable properties as biodegradable, used, development of catalysts and different kind of methodologies for the production of biodiesel. In this study, the feasibility of biodiesel to be synthesized from a low cost feedstock which is coconut waste had been investigated. The abundance of coconut waste readily obtained from the market, restaurants and hotels were converted to a value-added fuel through an in-situ transesterification. Earlier findings on the Soxhlet extraction of the coconut waste oil showed that about 45% of oil content can be obtained from the extraction which was sufficient to be converted to biodiesel. It was found that at ratio of 12.5:1 of methanol to solid coconut waste, with reaction time of 6 hours and 5 wt% of catalyst, up to 90% of biodiesel content could be obtained. This investigation concludes that coconut waste has the potential to be further used for synthesis of biodiesel through in-situ transesterifcation reaction.