Fuel properties of biodiesel produced from the crude fish oil from the soapstock of marine fish

The soapstock of a mixture of marine fish was used as the raw material to produce the biodiesel in this study. The soapstock was collected from discarded fish products. Crude fish oil was squeezed from the soapstock of the fish and refined by a series of processes. The refined fish oil was transesterified to produce biodiesel. The fuel properties of the biodiesel were analyzed. The experimental results showed that oleic acid (C18:1) and palmitic acid (C16:0) were the two major components of the marine fish-oil biodiesel. The biodiesel from the mixed marine fish oil contained a significantly greater amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids than did the biodiesel from waste cooking oil. In addition, the marine fish-oil biodiesel contained as high as 37.07 wt.% saturated fatty acids and 37.3 wt.% long chain fatty acids in the range between C20 and C22. Moreover, the marine fish-oil biodiesel appeared to have a larger acid number, a greater increase in the rate of peroxidization with the increase in the time that it was stored, greater kinematic viscosity, higher heating value, higher cetane index, more carbon residue, and a lower peroxide value, flash point, and distillation temperature than those of waste cooking-oil biodiesel. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.