Abstract

Biodiesel can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels and successful studies have been carried out in different applications. The advantages with biodiesel are lower bulk, higher energy density, as well as more transportable and storable capability. We used butchery waste for the production of hydrocarbon gases and biodiesel. For this purpose we used nano catalyst and anatase form of titanium dioxide photocatalyst at room temperature. In the first experiment, butchery waste was cracked into low melting point oil, solid residue and hydrocarbon gases. In the second experiment, cracked oil was transesterified to biodiesel with NaOH at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The results yielded best quality biodiesel. The economics of this novel process is much more cost competitive due to cheap raw material (butchery waste) that contains high levels of fatty acids. Photocatalysis gave hydrocarbons of prime importance. This study reports an interesting finding that butchery waste could be used for not only the production of biodiesel but also for hydrocarbons. This technology differs from others in that it uses low energy input, cheap and reusable catalyst, with low sulphur and nitrogenous waste gases than petro-diesel and is environment friendly.

Key words: Butchery waste, photocatalyst, biofuel, cobalt nanoparticles, nickel nanoparticles, transesterification.