Biodiesel production from used frying oil using electrolysis method with methanol addition

Abstract An effort that can be carried-out in facing the energy crisis is by developing some new alternative and renewable energy source to reduce the usage of fossil energy, one of those is by producing biodiesel from used frying oil. Biodiesel production in this research is conducted by processing used frying oil using electrolysis process, the electrolysis voltage varies with the addition of methanol. The used frying oil is collected mainly from home industries. The electrolysis reaction lasts for 4 hours with various voltages of 6, 9, and 12 V with various methanol volumes of 20, 30 and 40 ml. the highest yield of biodiesel obtained is 38.3% at 12 V with 20 ml methanol addition. The lowest cetane number is 80.3 at 9 V with 20 ml methanol addition, this number is too high above the standard cetane number for biodiesel which is 51. The only density number of biodiesel produced that meets the standard is 877 gr/cm3 at 9 V with addition of 20 ml methanol or 40 ml methanol. This research requires further study and more parameters to obtain biodiesel which meets the national standard.