Brown Grease as a Source for Biodiesel Production

Global climate changes which are influenced by an increase in the atmospheric CO₂ concentration have led to the necessity of searching for alternative energy sources. One alternative energy source is biodiesel from various agricultural crops, mainly corn. However, using crops for fuel production will lead to depletion of global food sources.

The aim of the present research is to develop a novel scheme for continuous production of biodiesel from brown grease. Brown grease is cooking oil waste. It has a high free fatty acid content, which can serve as a potential feedstock for biodiesel production. Biodiesel is a mixture of alkyl monoesters of fatty acids which can be obtained in the course of esterification of free fatty acids or trans-esterification of triglycerides. Both of these reactions can be effectively conducted under thermal activation using classical homogeneous catalysts, which must be removed from the reaction mixture. This configuration is therefore unsuitable for production of biodiesel in a continuous regime.

In the present research, it is proposed to develop a novel scheme of continuous biodiesel production using heterogeneous catalysts. Implementation of this scheme will reduce Israel’s dependence on oil import, promote replacement of fossil fuels by renewable biofuels, facilitate utilization of brown grease wastes, prevent greenhouse gas exhausts and contribute to wastewater treatment processes.