7^th World Congress on Petrochemistry and Chemical Engineering November 13-14, 2017 Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Fasiu A Oluwole is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. His research interest is on renewable energy with special interest in biofuels. He has built up this career after years of experience in research, evaluation, teaching and administration both in education institutions and development/fabrication of processing equipment. He has published more than 27 papers in reputed journals.

Statement of the Problem: The environmental effects (global warming) caused by the usage of fossil fuel and the environmental benefits of using renewable and environmental friendly energy resource has made biodiesel more attractive in recent times. Studies have been conducted on the transformation of castor oil into biodiesel. However, the varieties of castor oil used were not specified and little effort has been made to address the effects of oilseed pre-treatment methods on biodiesel yield and properties. This study therefore, investigates the production and characterization of biodiesel using oil expressed from four varieties of pre-treated castor seeds.

Methodology: Oil was expressed from each of the pre-treated castor seeds varieties using hydraulic press. The extracted oils were transesterified by reacting them with anhydrous methanol, using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as catalyst. The process parameters used were three levels of catalyst concentration, three levels of reaction temperature, three levels of reaction time, three heating methods and two seeds conditions. In all the experiments, a methanol/castor oil molar ratio of 6:1 was used. Biodiesel yield was calculated and the fuels obtained were characterized to determine the fuel properties.

Findings: A regression model was developed for biodiesel yield and response surface method (RSM) was used to confirm the polynomial equation solved using the Design-Expert 7.0 Software.

Conclusions: Highest biodiesel yield of 98.20% was obtained from raw dehulled GMS. Biodiesel yield varied with seed variety and was influenced by heating method, catalyst concentration, seed condition and their interactions. Biodiesel from oil of GMS variety possessed the best set of fuel properties and is therefore recommended for use in biodiesel production. The developed mathematical models adequately simulated the biodiesel production process and can be applied to the process involving oils of different origin.

Ifeyinwa Orakwe is currently undertaking her PhD programme at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, United Kingdom. She is also a Research Assistant working on a project related to CO₂ reforming of methane. She has a Bachelor degree in Chemistry and Masters in Environmental Science. In her research career, she has published in professional journal papers and made oral presentations at international conferences. Her research interests are in the areas of oil and gas, waste water and designing inorganic hybrid ceramic membrane for the purpose of water treatment and syngas production.

The greenhouse gases which are majorly CH₄ and CO₂ have raised concerns throughout the world due to their link to global warming and climate change. Research is ongoing to develop methods that can be applied commercially for the utilization of flue gases into useful products such as syngas. There are methods currently in use commercially such as the steam reforming and partial oxidation reforming for syngas production, but due to the requirement of very high operating temperatures, these methods are not usually economical for commercial syngas production. Recently, the use of membrane technology has drawn so much interest. In this study, a CO₂ reforming method employing a catalytic membrane reactor process was built to study the CO₂ reforming of methane. The membrane used was a tubular mesoporous tube consisting of Al₂O₃, with the rhodium catalyst impregnated into its pores by the wet impregnation method. The impregnation method allows for the catalyst to be deposited into the pores on the outer surface of the membrane. A flue gas stream comprising of CO₂-12.5%, CH₄-2.5%, CO-50ppm, N₂-80.595%, O₂-4.4% was feed into the reactor system as soon in figure 1 under various operating conditions: temperature range 700^oC-900^oC and flowrates of 0.45 and 1.50 Lmin-1. The exit stream was connected to a GCMS which was used to interpret the results. At 700^oC, no conversions were realized but at 900^oC, CO₂ and CH₄ conversions reached above 94%. Our catalytic membrane process is therefore a viable and effective technological breakthrough which converts the two most important greenhouse gases CH₄ and CO₂ into valuable syngas without the need for CO₂ pre-separation from flue gas.

Yeshitila Asteraye Tsigie has PhD in Applied Chemistry from National Taiwan University of Science and technology. He has his expertise in biofuels research. Biodiesel and bioethanol research have has been the focus of his research thematic area. He has conducted works on Biodiesel from yeasts and algae. Chlorella vulgaris was one of these microorganisms wherein the biodiesel research was undertaken.

The conventional base catalyzed biodiesel production process uses refined vegetable oil as feedstock oil and is not environmentally friendly. The supercritical methanol technology does not require the use of catalyst but it is energy intensive due to the high temperature and pressure required in the process. In this work, a process was developed for producing biodiesel directly from wet Chlorella vulgaris biomass (80% moisture content) using subcritical water as catalyst. Under the following conditions: The ratio of wet biomass to methanol is 1/4 (g/mL), the reaction temperature is 175 °C and after 4 h, the reaction product contained 89.71% fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). The yield is 0.29 g FAME per g dry biomass. This is considerably higher than the yield of 0.20g FAME per g dry biomass obtained when the neutral lipid of C. vulgaris biomass was extracted and converted into FAME.

In the search for eco-friendly carbon neutral and minimal pollutant emission generating fuels to combat global climate change in addition to issues of the energy security, biodiesel is at the front among the options available for potential bio-renewable fuels. The increasing interest in biodiesel and blends amongst production systems opens up new vistas of research from selection of appropriate raw materials and feed stocks to the desired end product quality and quantity. Biodiesel primarily obtained from the trans-esterification of the fatty acids or by pyrolysis/thermal cracking, however, to achieve the higher quality of biodiesel with higher conversion efficiency from the fatty acids demands exclusive optimum operational and solvent/reagents conditions in terms of their affordability and physico-chemical conditions. There are extensive efforts taken up on the optimization of feedstock oils but yet paradigm shift in the research can be visualized through the use of alternative efficient green solvents/ reagents/enzymes/catalysts and viable advanced low cost technologies. The measure of these qualities and performances after conversion are determined by prominent biodiesel parameters which may be chemo-physical, thermal, gaseous emissions, gravimetric/instrumental and engine performance. The utmost scope to work on the alternative green and sustainable energy is the addition to the use of modern nanotechnologies to biotechnologies for achieving the efficient process as well as optimum production parameters of biodiesel which complies with the US, European, South African and Indian biodiesel standards which are of essence. This paper explores these and their relationships in the biodiesel production systems and highlights their overall significance.