There are three major hurdles in producing biodiesel from waste vegetable oil
1)The logistics part, collection of waste oil - Worked out a plan
2)The reaction part, traditional esterification uses methanol and hydroxides of salts which is not that stable (alternative is enzymatic Transesterification)
3)Filtering the main waste oil feed- I need help here, I have some ideas but if some one has already worked on it and is happy to share his experience, you are most welcome.
1. For waste oil you will have to contact restaurant or hotels cooks.
2. Regarding esterification reaction of waste oil, either you have to process your oil to remove FFA (Free fatty acid) or you can react directly using acid catalyst.
3. For filtration of oil, you can filter the oil using filter cloth in Buchner funnel under vacuum.
The above three suggestions are in respect to your all the three queries. Hope may help you to proceed your work.
Best way I have done is to use diatamaceous earth leaf filters. I believe one brand is called Niagara. These are typically available in the palm oil refinery to remove moisture and the phosphatized gums.
The pre coating will be best to remove small suspended solids. Other stuff is too cumbersome, since you will have to operate at > 60-70 C to avoid solidifcation of fatty acids.
Major problem with this approach is the odor from the fatty acids.
The filtration method depnds on the quantity to be filtered and the nature of the contaminants. Did you think about centrifugations? Centrifiges are used in large scale in ships, filtering their engine oil.
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