Production of Biodiesel using Used Ricebran Oil

C. Bharadwaj Kumar, Agnihotram S Y V R Krishna, P. Sreedhar, G. Prabhakar

Abstract: The production of biodiesel from used ricebran oil at a fixed temperature and catalyst loading, various oil to methanol ratios (31, 41, 51 & 61) is carried out. The oil was transesterified using Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) as catalysts in methanol to obtain ricebran oil methyl ester (Biodiesel). For the optimum reaction temperature, the biodiesel production was carried out at a constant loading of catalyst (1.05 grams) and temperature at 600C. From the experimental observations, comparative study on the processes using different catalysts the optimum yield obtained for KOH as catalyst which is 88.84 % for 61 mole ratio at 600C, keeping agitator speed constant.

Keywords: Transesterification, Biodiesel, Ricebran oil, Methanol, Catalyst