Taiwan researchers turn waste cooking oil into biodiesel

Want China Times, CNA 2013-11-02

Biodiesel, left, that was produced from waste cooking oil, right. (Photo/Huang Wenpo)

Using microwaves with strontium oxide as a catalyst, researchers at National Cheng Kung University in southern Taiwan have developed a way to turn waste cooking oil into biodiesel, a method they say they will share with local businesses for mass production of biodiesel within a year.

The university's professor Liao Jiunn-der and visiting professor Aharon Gedanken of Israel announced their findings on Thursday from the university in Tainan.

With the catalyst, kitchen waste can be turned into biodiesel and glycerol in a modified microwave oven in the space of 10-40 seconds, they said. The strontium oxide can then be reused, making the production method highly efficient, according to Liao.

The process can turn waste into a resource that contributes to the environment and economy, especially in Taiwan, where cooking and eating habits mean local restaurants, homes and schools produce a considerable amount of waste oil, noted Gedanken.

Liao hopes that the new method will help Taiwan, where diesel fuel currently consists of 2%-3% biodiesel, to meet the predictions of the European Union, which forecast that biodiesel will make up 20% of diesel by the year 2020.

The university is working on filing a patent for the technique, he said.

The modified microwave developed by Gedanken is able to handle an estimated 500 kilograms of waste oil per day, according to Liao.

The results proved that the transesterification of waste cooking oil into biodiesel using strontium oxide as a catalyst is a commercially viable way of decreasing the costs of biodiesel production, he added.