Abstract
The biodiesel production by trans-esterification of three raw materials including virgin and used edible-oil and non-edible oil has been presented in this paper. A two step method following acidic and alkali catalyst was used for non-edible oil due to the unsuitability of using the straight alkaline-catalyzed trans-esterification of high FFA present in rice bran oil. The acid value after processing of rice bran, cottonseed and waste cooking oil was found to be 0.95, 0.12 and 0.87, respectively. The influence of three variables on percentage yield was studied at this stage, i.e., methanol to oil molar ratio, reaction temperature and reaction time. The cottonseed oil, waste cooking oil and rice bran oil showed a maximum yield of 91.7, 84.1 and 87.1% under optimum conditions. The fuel properties of those three biodiesels have met standard biodiesel fuel results.