Estimation of heating value of solid alcohol fuel based on recycled waste cooking oil

Abstract

Waste cooking oil (WCO) may be recycled to produce solid alcohol fuel (SAF). The higher heating value (HHV) of recycled WCO, its micromorphology and physicochemical characteristics, and the possibility of employing SAF as a candle warmer were all explored in this work. Original waste cooking oil (O-WCO) was separated into two components by high-speed centrifugation: the supernatant of WCO (S-WCO) and the bottom of WCO (B-WCO). The mixed fatty acid sodium salts (FASSs) were created during the manufacture of SAF based on B-WCO. The best conditions for heating value of SAF based on B-WCO were 0.2 wt.% alcohol, 0.0275 wt.% NaOH, 0.7725 wt.% B-WCO, and a reaction time of 45 min. SAF based on B-WCO had a greater heating value than control groups such as SAF based on O-WCO, S-WCO, butter, and fossil fuels including coal, coke, charcoal, and carbon. The heating value of SAF based on B-WCO was similar to that of natural gas, and it can be used as a new solid fuel or a green energy source, such as a candle warmer, with many advantages such as higher melting point, environmentally friendly fuel, no harmful gases, longer combustion time, small residue, no dark smoke, ease of packing, perfectly hygienic, no need to heat, smoothness in quality, convenience in use, and easy transport and storage. In this article, the Support Vector Regression (SVR) machine learning method is used and an attempt is made to measure the importance of input parameters by predicting this artificial intelligence method. According to the prediction accuracy of the higher heating value of the biomass, the inputs’ influence was determined on the higher heating value. According to the obtained results, fixed carbon has correlation coefficient of 0.8446, volatile matter has correlation coefficient of 0.8949, and ash has correlation coefficient of 0.9214.