Turning used oil into fresh fuel

Mangalore Today News Network

Shivamoga, Nov 14, 2017 : It has taken a handful of students to give the often smelly and discarded used edible oil an image makeover. Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering here have not only converted used vegetable oil into biofuel, but have also been meeting the college’s partial requirement of fuel for transportation purposes. The success of the waste-to-fuel conversion may be the answer for the food and hotel industry on how to safely dispose of used vegetable oil.

 

Used edible oil is converted into biofuel by converting carboxylic acids in the oil into esters using acid and alcohols. The process is called trans-esterificaton.

Sreerpathi L.K., professor in mechanical engineering and coordinator of Biofuel Demonstration and Information Centre of the college, told The Hindu that one litre of used vegetable oil yields 900 ml of biofuel. The cost of producing one litre of biofuel is ₹35 while fossil diesel costs around ₹60 in the market at present.

He said at present waste oil is sourced from four local restaurants. The weekly production of biodiesel is 400 litres which partially meets the fuel needs of the college’s 30 buses. The bio-diesel made from waste edible oil is cost-effective and environment friendly and has also cleared engine performance tests, he said.

Buoyed by their success, the college plans to scale up the production.

Mr. Sreerpathi said the college would offer necessary technical assistance to youths who wish to take up production of bio-diesel from used edible oil.



courtesy:The Hindu