Effective parameters on biodiesel production from feather fat oil as a cost-effective feedstock.

Using low-cost feedstocks such as rendered animal fats in biodiesel production willreducebiodieselexpenditures. One of the low-cost feedstocksfor biodiesel production could be the fat extracted from poultry feathers producedin slaughterhouses abundantly. This paper describes a new and environmentally friendly process for developing biodiesel production technology from feather waste produced in poultry industry. In this research the crude oil of poultry feather fat was extracted by soxhlet method using hexane as a solvent. The data resulted from gas chromatography (GC) revealed these percentages for fatty acid compositions: myristic acid (3%), palmitic acid (30%), stearic acid (22%), oleic acid (8.1%), linoleic acid (3%) and arachidonic acid (7%).In this experimental research, the effects of some parameters such as alcohol to oil molar ratio (4:1,6:1, 8:1), catalyst concentration (0.75,1 and 1.25% w/w) and the transesterification reaction time(40,60 and80min) on the percentage offatty acids conversioninto methyl ester(biodiesel) are studied. The results show increasing catalyst concentration up to 1% causes the oil to biodiesel conversion percentage having an upward trend and then adownward trend byincreasing catalyst concentration up to 1.25%. With increasing molar ratio from 4:1 to 6:1 and then 8:1, oil to biodiesel conversion percentage increased16% and2%, respectively. Ultimatelythe optimum point defined by response surface method (RSM) forproducing biodiesel from feather fat is calculated catalyst concentration of 1 wt%, 7.24:1 molar ratio and in 75 minutes resulting in conversion percentage of97.62%.