An international research scholar of Tezpur University from Alexandria, Egypt, Khalifa Said, has successfully produced bio-diesel from residual food items such as cooking oil waste and the leaves of radish and sweet potato. This new and innovative chemical process has significantly reduced the cost of the production of bio-fuel, an issue scientists around the globe have been exploring gravely.
Khalifa under the supervision of Prof. Manabendra Mandal, Dept of MBBT, Tezpur Univ and co-supervision of Prof. Dhanapati Deka, Dept of Energy, Tezpur Univ published papers on this process in reputed science journals such as Renewable Energy (IF:8.634) and Industrial crops and products (IF: 6.449). “Our primary intention is to stop climate change,” said Khalifa. “Day-to-day food items such as used cooking oil, thrown away by households and restaurants as waste, can be used as feedstock for producing bio-diesel at a much lower cost.” Prof. Mandal said, “Agricultural wastes are promising sources for producing renewable and sustainable clean energies.”
Generally, bio-diesel is produced by the reaction between triglyceride feedstock and alcohol in the presence of a catalyst to form the fatty acid methyl ester (bio-diesel) and glycerol. Khalifa changed the feedstock oil and catalyst in the chemical process to reduce the cost of the production of bio-diesel. He treated residual cooking oil and algae oil, which are then used as feedstock oil. Microalga is a great proponent of greenhouse gas reduction and can also be cultivated in wastewater. Calcination of the leaves of radish and sweet potato, rich in potassium, resulted in the desired catalyst. Prof. Deka said, “Bio-based systems for the production of chemicals and energy can substitute conventional sources. Thus, it can help in reducing the climate change possibilities.”
Niran Daimary, PhD student of Tezpur University and co-author of the published papers said, “The study emphasizes waste valorization for sustainable energy production by utilizing locally available biowaste.” Dolijit Borah, PhD student of Tezpur Univ and another co-author said, “Microalgae has the potential to replace petroleum and help to mitigate climate change. However, it needs multidisciplinary research emphasis to make microalgal technology commercially viable.”
Khalifa started working on this project in October 2019, but his work was affected and slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic. He used the facilities of the Dept of Energy, Tezpur University for his experiments, and the Sophisticated Analytical Instrumentation Centre (SAIC), Tezpur University and North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST), Jorhat for analysis.
Currently, the techno-economical analysis of the project is underway to determine the actual cost of the production of bio-diesel. Khalifa plans to apply this process of low-cost bio-diesel production on a large scale in his home country Egypt in collaboration with Tezpur University and Indian authorities.