MIIX Virtua

Used cooking oil from various feedstock has become one of the major environmental pollutants due to its improper disposal that may cause environmental problem. Therefore, this study aims to produce biodiesel through the transesterification process of used palm oil and study its chemical and physical properties. Sodium hydroxide is the catalyst for this process, was dissolved in methyl alcohol before being mixed with the used oil. The used oil and methyl alcohol mixture was left for a day and was then filtered and washed to obtain pure biodiesel. Results shows that the biodiesel produced from used oil has almost identical properties with biodiesel produced from other sources in terms of density and kinematic viscosity which are 0.85 kg/m3 and 5.76 mm2/s respectively. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy spectrum analysis of biodiesel from WCO also shows similar functional groups being present in other biodiesels which contains C-O, C=O and C-H at 1168 cm-1, 1741 cm-1, and 2922 cm-1 respectively. Therefore, the used oil can be used as an alternative source to produce biodiesel.