Abstract
Waste cooking oil (WCO) is regarded as one of
the cheapest feedstock for the production of biodiesel. The
waste cooking oil used in this study was prepared in the
laboratory by adding 5 wt. % of oleic acid into 95 wt. % of
soybeans oil. 10 wt. % of titania-supported-magnesium oxide
catalyst (MgO/TiO2) used was prepared by incipient wetness
impregnation and characterized using XRF and XRD. These
materials were tested and used as catalyst for the conversion of
waste vegetable oil to biodiesel in the presence of methanol and
hexane as co-solvents. Methanol to hexane mole ratio of 1:1
was employed in the transesterification process. The effects of
reaction time, reaction temperature and hexane co-solvent on
the waste vegetable oil conversion have been established. The
1HNMR analysis was used to estimate the waste vegetable oil
conversion and the average molecular formula of fatty acid
methyl esters (FAME) produced. It was observed that the oil
conversion increased with the increase in reaction time,
reaction temperature and use of hexane as co-solvent.