Waste Cooking Oil as Fuel in Diesel Engines

Household kitchens and the food industry generate millions of tons of cooked oil residue each year. Waste oils and fats can be used as renewable fuel resources as an alternative fuel for the automobiles. Conversion of waste oils and fats to bio diesel fuel has many environmental advantages over petroleum based diesel fuel. However conversion of waste oils and fats to bio fuel poses some difficulties such as the use of toxic or caustic materials and by-product disposal. Conversion to bio fuel may also decrease the economic attractiveness of using waste oils as fuels. An alternative to the use of bio diesel is the use of waste cooking oils as a fuel. Using relatively unmodified waste cooking oils or fats eliminates the problems which were associated with toxic and caustic precursor chemicals and residual bio diesel alkalinity as the oil is used without altering its chemical properties. In the present investigations, tests were carried out on a diesel engine using diesel and waste cooking oil separately to compare the engine performance and the emission analyses. It was found that the waste cooking oil has the similar combustion characteristics.