Abstract:
Sri Lanka should look at alternative fuel sources to reduce its dependence on foreign oils. Diesel is the highest used petroleum
product in the transport sector. Biodiesel extracted from non edible oils like Rubber Seed Oil (RSO) is one such alternative
fuel that is feasible in Sri Lanka. However RSO contains high amount of free fatty acid (FF A). This lowers the yield
of methyl ester (biodiesel) formation if alkaline esterification is performed directly. Therefore a two-step trans-esterification process
is used to convert high FFA non-edible oils to_biodiesel. First step is acid easterification to reduce the FFA
of oil and the second step is alkaline esterification to produce bio diesel from oil with FFA reduced. ln this study two of the major
factors that affect the efficiency of the acid esterification step were investigated. The properties of biodiesel produced
with standard biodiesel and petroleum diesel fuel were also compared.
