Beef Tallow Biodiesel as an Alternative Transportation Fuel

Recycling of waste products are one of the most important issues in developing and developed countries. Beef tallow is one of these residues produced in slaughter houses and primarily is utilized in soap production industry. However, when this industry is overloaded, the extra fats are usually incinerated or disposed in a sanitary landfill. Due to which it will increase the water pollution in the town. However, beef tallow may be consumed in biodiesel production. Therefore, in this work, the process of biodiesel production in a pilot plant is proposed using beef tallow as raw material with methanol and potassium hydroxide as catalyst. The quality of the produced biodiesel will evaluated by measuring different properties like density, viscosity, calorific value, flash point, fire point, pour point, cloud point and cetane number. Analysis will give final product contains ester compositions which can be used as biodiesel fuel in diesel engines. The viscosity of natural beef tallow was very high, and actually, it was solid; however, after transesterification the viscosity of the final product will become less and it became liquid. The viscosity of the final product measured at 40°C is 5.1 mm2 s−1, and the comparison of this biodiesel with the data of ASTMD-445 standard resulted in the similarity of this product with petroleum diesel. In this research, the process of biodiesel production from beef tallow and its properties are explained. Alkaline transesterification of beef tallow with methanol decreases the viscosity of the final synthesized product and produces a high quality biodiesel for diesel engines. Beef tallow is one of the low cost residual materials available locally in slaughter houses of Ethiopia. Therefore, the slaughter houses can be considered as one of the available source to produce biodiesel.