Comparative analysis of transesterification of virgin cooking oil (VCO) and waste
cooking oil (WCO) in catalyzed and supercritical transesterification technique
utilizing methanol and ethanol as solvents has been executed in this study. The
graspable part of this research was to address the analogy of catalytic and
supercritical process using ester content acquired from virgin cooking oil and waste
cooking oil transesterification. Oil to alcohol molar ratio of 1:6, reaction temperature
of 65 °C and 1 bar pressure were contemplated for the catalytic process, whereas
260 °C and high pressure (65 and 75 bar for methanol and ethanol, respectively)
were accounted for the supercritical process. Distinct layer partition was
ascertained for both processes. Ester, fatty acid and glycerol composition was
investigated for both the upper and lower layers independently, from which 100%
ester composition in the upper layer and a mixture of ester and other composition
in the lower layer was procured for the catalytic process owing to succeeding
filtration and washing. Nonetheless, mixture of ester (>75%) and other composition
was attained in both layers for the supercritical process where purification process
was not administered. The analogy in the result obtained testifies the dominance of
waste cooking oil compared to virgin cooking oil, taking cost into consideration.