Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil in Yemen: a techno-economic investigation

ABSTRACT

The conflict in Yemen in 2015 has resulted in a total lack of diesel fuel supply to many major cities that resulted in disruption to many public services and utilities. This trans-disciplinary two-phase project was initiated by the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service to study the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil (WCO) from a techno-economic point of view. The first phase of the project included a lab scale biodiesel investigation to determine the optimum production conditions. The biodiesel fuel product was analyzed, in addition to a performance comparison between diesel and biodiesel on a small compression ignition gen-set. The second phase included a feasibility study for small and medium scale biodiesel production facilities from WCO based on the current economic situation in Yemen.

KEYWORDS:

• Waste cooking oil
• biodiesel production
• diesel engine
• transesterification

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the small and micro enterprise promotion service (SMEPS) under the ministry of work, Yemen, for the financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.