Research project: Sustainable Hydrogenated Biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil via Intensified Transesterification Processes (open for PhD application)

Biodiesel is increasingly mandated in countries around the world as a blend with fossil diesel, in order to combat environmental deterioration and improve energy security. Biodiesel already accounts for about 3% of diesel consumption in recent years. While the improvement in energy security due to biodiesel is certain, its potential to mitigate environmental deterioration is dependent on the feedstock-process combinations. The use of waste cooking oil (WCO) has seen a 360% increase in just 5 years, as it has the potential to reduce global warming potential up to 90% relative to petroleum diesel. In this study, we will explore novel hydrogenated biodiesel production processes using co-solvents and reticulated vitreous carbon-coated catalysts. In addition to the technical aspects, the exergy, exergo-economic and exergo-environmental analyses will be conducted to achieve multi-objective optimisation to ensure resource-efficient and cost-effective biodiesel production methods.