Biodiesel Production from Used Cooking Oil with Assisted Sun Light and Fresnel Solar Concentrator

Methods for biodiesel production have been developed using Fresnel lens solar concentrator (FSC). Transesterification of used cooking oil using the FSC approach and conventional heating approach was studied by varying different process variables such as catalyst loading, and reaction time with the aim of obtaining the benefits of the FSC method. The highest biodiesel yield of 99.18% was obtained for the FSC method in a 5 minutes reaction time under the catalyst loading reaction conditions of 2.5% by weight, and a temperature of around 60 degrees C. Meanwhile, the conventional heating method only produced 21.3% biodiesel in the reaction conditions same. To obtain similar results (97%), the conventional heating method requires 70 minutes of reaction time with a temperature of 60 degrees C. Energy efficiency for both methods observes that the FSC method is more energy-efficient than conventional heating methods. Therefore, the FSC method intensifies the process by reducing time and energy requirements. Physicochemical properties such as FFA (0.14%), density (0.871 g / cm3), and kinematic viscosity (3.9 mm(2) / sec), biodiesel synthesized was also compared with the Indonesian National Standard (SNI).