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MRES THESIS
- BIODIESEL PRODUCTION
Feasibility study of the potential for a small scale biodiesel
production facility, to be set up as a community enterprise by
Sundance. Funded by European Social Fund and Swansea
Environment Centre.
Abstract:
Feasibility of Biodiesel Production
from Used Vegetable Oil in Carmarthenshire, South Wales
MRes Eng Department of Materials Engineering, University of
Wales Swansea 2001-2003
Academic supervisors Dr David Isaac and Dr Cris Arnold
By Jan Cliff
This project
investigates aspects of renewable fuels and in particular the
potential to produce biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.
Biodiesel is a
renewable and recycled fuel made from organic oils. Chemically
it is composed of Free Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME). It is
made from processed organic oils and fats and can be burned in
normal diesel engines in the same way as mineral diesel. It is a
comparatively clean fuel and does not contribute to the causes
of global warming. It is also possible to make good biodiesel
from waste vegetable oil. In this way, burning biodiesel turns
waste disposal problems into a non-polluting fuel source. Unlike
other parts of Europe and the USA, the biodiesel industry in UK
is still in its infancy. To help kick-start a biodiesel
processing industry in Wales, this project assesses the
requirements for a viable biodiesel market.
The review of
literature synthesises the available information on biodiesel
and gives a comprehensive overview of biodiesel as a renewable
fuel together with an assessment of processing methods and the
progress of biodiesel in other countries, as a possible model
for the development of biodiesel in Wales.
The wider issues of
sustainable transport and the need to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions are explored with a view of how alternative fuels can
replace the use of fossil fuels. Government legislation on this
matter is discussed.
Laboratory
experimentation investigated the possibility of using different
catalysts for the transesterification process. Research undertaken to
establish the availability of used vegetable oil to supply a
biodiesel process and the extent of a potential market for the
end product (biodiesel as an alternative transport fuel: liquid
solar energy) will inform proposals for an actual business plan.
It is intended that
this work forms an academic study combined with an
environmental, technological and socio-economic analysis of the
merits of biodiesel as a sustainable fuel.
The findings of this
report have formed the basis for an innovative, community-based
biodiesel processing venture for the sponsoring company,
Sundance Renewables. |
