Optimization of pretreatment reaction for methyl ester production from chicken fat

In biodiesel production, to use low cost feedstock such as rendered animal fats may reduce the biodiesel cost. One of the low cost animal fats is the chicken fat for biodiesel production. It is extracted from feather meal which is prepared from chicken wastes such as chicken feathers, blood, offal and trims after rendering process. However, chicken fats often contain significant amounts of FFA which cannot be converted to biodiesel using an alkaline catalyst due to the formation of soap. Therefore, the FFA level should be reduced to desired level (below 1%) by using acid catalyst before transesterification. For this aim, sulfuric, hydrochloric and sulfamic (amidosulfonic) acids were used for pretreatment reactions and the variables affecting the FFA level including alcohol molar ratio, acid catalyst amount and reaction time were investigated by using the chicken fat with 13.45% FFA. The optimum pretreatment condition was found to be 20% sulfuric acid and 40:1 methanol molar ratio based on the amount of FFA in the chicken fat for 80 min at 60 °C. After transesterification, the methyl ester yield was 87.4% and the measured fuel properties of the chicken fat methyl ester met EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 biodiesel specifications.