Students develop biodiesel from used vegetable oil

Five students of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, have developed a waste-to-fuel method to manufacture from used vegetable oil.

 

The students, T.R.Varun,Sharath Krishnan,Simon C.Mathew, Tony Chacko and J.Sreehai, have come up with an energy-efficient non-polluting system that converts used edible oil into biodiesel, as part of their final year project. The team claims that the fuel can be used for all practical purposes with reduced levels of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emission. The conversion of used edible oil into biodiesel involves a process knows as transesterification by which the oil is mixed with alcohol to break down the carbon chain and bring it on a par with diesel. Unprocessed vegetable oil possesses fatty acids that will congeal and clog the fuel injectors and engine. The transesterification process helps to remove the fatty acids. The biodiesel successfully tested by the students was mixed with diesel in the right proportion in a specially made plant.

 

 (The Hindu