In-situ pyrogenic production of biodiesel from swine fat

Abstract

In-situ production of fatty acid methyl esters from swine fat via thermally induced pseudo-catalytic transesterification on silica was investigated in this study. Instead of methanol, dimethyl carbonate (DMC) was used as acyl acceptor to achieve environmental benefits and economic viability. Thermogravimetric analysis of swine fat reveals that swine fat contains 19.57 wt.% of water and impurities. Moreover, the fatty acid profiles obtained under various conditions (extracted swine oil + methanol + NaOH, extracted swine oil + DMC + pseudo-catalytic, and swine fat + DMC + pseudo-catalytic) were compared. These profiles were identical, showing that the introduced in-situ transesterification is technically feasible. This also suggests that in-situ pseudo-catalytic transesterification has a high tolerance against impurities. This study also shows that FAME yield via in-situ pseudo-catalytic transesterification of swine fat reached up to 97.2% at 380 degrees C. Therefore, in-situ pseudo-catalytic transesterification can be applicable to biodiesel production of other oil-bearing biomass feedstocks.