The gradual depletion of world petroleum reserves and the impact of environmental pollution of increasing exhaust emissions have stimulated the search for alternative sources for petroleum-based fuel, including diesel fuels. Biodiesel, an alternative diesel fuel, is made from renewable biological sources such as vegetable oils and animal fats. The production of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil offers a triple-facet solution: economic, environmental and waste management.
The objective of this project was to determine the various properties of biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oils of different stocks in Ghana and the effects of blending on these properties. Five waste vegetable oil samples from five major cities in Ghana and of different stocks were processed into biodiesel and were later blended with fossil diesel. The samples were the ‘Ghana sample’, ‘Accra sample’, ‘filtered sample’, ‘coconut oil’ and ‘palm kernel oil’.
Tests were carried out on the various physicochemical properties of the raw biodiesels and its blends and the data obtained were analyzed and compared to fossil diesel. The minimum and maximum cetane numbers recorded by the biodiesel blends were 45.95 and 50.44 respectively, which was within ASTM’s required standard. The B100 biodiesels also recorded low sulphur contents which were 0.0040%wt, 0.0054%wt, 0.0059%wt, 0.0071%wt and 0.0082%wt for Accra sample, filtered sample, Ghana sample, palm kernel oil and coconut oil respectively. The biodiesel blends again obtained colours of 1.0 which is seen by ASTM as the best.
From the results it was clear that, the measured properties of produced raw biodiesel fuels were within ASTM recommended standards and the physicochemical properties also improved when blending was done with regards to fossil diesel.