Chemical Technology February 2015

Petrochemicals WASTE MANAGEMENT

feasible from an environmental perspective and which to rule out. The LCA will be performed by conducting lab scale experiments in order to find the required input and output for each biodiesel production process using SimaPro 7.3.3 as an analysis tool. The following questions will be answered: • What is the LCA score of a biodiesel production process using different catalysts, ie, KOH and NaOH and alcohols, methanol and ethanol? • From the LCA scores which process is more favourable from an environmental point of view? This article aims to produce different biodiesel samples and to compare the LCA of the different processes. Vari- ous biodiesel experiments using different alcohols and catalyst were performed. The input and output data from the lab scale experiment will be used as input to the LCA software, SimaPro 7.3.3 to quantify the environmental impact of each process. The LCA scores will then be used to determine which biodiesel production process has the lowest environmental impact.

are: goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. Energy production from fossil fuels has higher greenhouse emissions that lead to global warming; the high demand of energy has led to renewable energy development. Biodiesel falls under renewable energy and has low environmental impacts as compared to the energy from the fossil fuels (Varanda et al , 2011). The environmental impact of a product is considered im- portant because it degrades to the earth and its species. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are being used to determine the impact of biodiesel on the environment so that the impacts can be reduced by making improvements in their life cycle where necessary or by choosing a more environmentally friendly process.Making biodiesel from used cooking oil is considered as a way of reducing greenhouse emissions which benefits the environment and also shows sustainability through waste conversion to renewable energy (Basheer et al , 2012). Problem statements and research questions It is desired to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on different biodiesel production processes in order to deter- mine which one has fewer environmental impacts. Due to the escalating global warming issue, processes that have lower environmental impacts are getting attention from vari- ous industries. An LCA assists in deciding which process is

Experimental procedure Biodiesel production method Oil filtration

Waste cooking oil that was used for frying food was collected from the dining hall (Matrix, University of theWitwatersrand). • Food chunks in the oil were allowed to settle for a day. • A sieve was used to filter out the small particles remaining

7 Chemical Technology • February 2015