Chapter II Review of Related Literature and Related Studies This chapter presents relevant materials which will help

the researchers in carrying out this study. The articles and definition of terms here will serve as a guide in identifying the variables to be explored and those that should not be included. Related Literature Biofuel is any fuel that can be derived from organic matter. It is a renewable source of energy. Its biodegradability is one of its advantages making it harmless to the environment when spilled. Biofuel, unlike petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels, doesnt have carbon dioxide emissions. generation. (Department of Energy, Alternative Fuel Division and Philforest, Old Namria Bldg., Lawton Ave, Fort Bonifacio, Makati.) There are three types of Biofuel- Biomethane, Bioethanol, and Biodiesel. Biomethane is a biogas from anaerobic digesters and landfills that is used as compressed gas in natural gas vehicles. Bioethanol is the processed starch or sugarrich biomass like cassava, corn, coconut, potatoes, soybeans, sugar beets, sugarcane, and sweet sorghum. Biodiesel is the extract and ester from vegetable oils which can be used as cooking oil and animal fats using alcohols.
(www.iea.org/Textbase/techno/essentials.html)

It is primarily used in thermal, motive and power

In this study, the researchers aim to yield Biodiesel from the corm of Colocasia esculenta or Taro. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel for diesel engines. It is a fuel comprised of mono-alkyl esters. (http://biofuel.org.uk/biodiesel-basics.html) It is not based from petroleum and contains chains of methyl, propyl, ethyl and esters. It is the biofuel that would result after the reaction between basic feedstocks, usually vegetable oil and animal fats, and alcohol, usually methanol, with the help of a catalyst, usually sodium or potassium hydroxide. In US, they use soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, recycled restaurant oils, tallow and lard, grease recovered from restaurants, and float grease from waste water treatment plants, while in Europe, they use rapeseed oil for their biodiesel (www.articlesbase.com/biodiesel-vs-diesel-886799.html) (T. Randall Fortenbery, Biodiesel Feasibility Study: An Evaluation of Biodiesel Feasibility in Wisconsin, Staff Paper No. 481, March 2005.) Colocasia esculenta or Taro is a long-stalked herbaceous plant with green huge leaves growing up to 30 to 150 centimeters. The rootstock can grow up to 10 centimeters in diameter. The leaves, in groups of two or three, are long petioled, ovate, 20 to 50 centimmeters long, glaucous, with entire margins, with a broad triangular basal sinus extending a third or halfway to the insertion of the petiole, with broad and rounded basal lobes. Petioles are green or purplish which is 0.2 to 1 meter long. Spathe is variable in length; it is about 20 cm long. Spadix is cylindric, half as long as the spathe, and green below and yellowish above. Taro has its major components palmitic acid and linoleic acid, the same components of sunflower seeds, Jathropa curcas and other

feedstocks that were proven to be a good source of biodiesel. There are rich cultivations found in the countries in Southeast Asia like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Philippines. There have been already many discovered biodiesels nowadays. All of them underwent the process of transesterification. But what is transesterification? It is simply the process of converting feedstocks into biodiesel. As early as 1853, transesterification is used to generate power for the heavy-duty vehicles in South Africa before World War II. Transesterification in 1853 was conducted by E. Duy and J. Patrick, scientists.
[9]

It

can also be used as term describing the significant class of organic reactions where an ester is transformed into another through interchange of the alkoxymoiety. When an alcohol is involved in the reaction with the original ester, it is called alcoholysis. (www.oilgae.com/TRANSESTERIFICATION.html) In the transesterification of vegetable oils, a triglyceride reacts with an alcohol, usually methanol, in the presence of a strong acid or base, producing a mixture of fatty acids alkyl esters and a byproduct glycerol. (J. Braz. Chem. Soc., Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 199-210, 1998.) Related Study According to T. Randall Fortenbery (August 2004) in his Biodiesel Feasibility Study: An Evaluation of Biodiesel Feasibility in Wisconsin, recycled products, like fats and oils can be used for biodiesel productions. Usually, yellow grease and trap grease are the once used for biodiesel production. Yellow grease is the one manufactured from used cooking oil and other fats and oils from huge restaurants, hospitals and other

commercial food service. Other than soybean oil, most biodiesel productions in US use yellow grease because it is cheaper than any other vegetable oils. Trap or brown grease is the one manufactured from waste treatment plants that separate oil and grease from wastewater. It has lesser demand than yellow grease because it requires many pre-treatments before it be usable as a biodiesel feedstock. According to Y. Zhang, M.A. Dub, D.D. McLean, and M. Kates (January 21, 2003) in their review paper of Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil: Process Design and Technological Assessment ; all the processes conducted in their research proved that waste cooking oil is capable of producing high quality biodiesel product and a glycerine by-product. But it has it limitations. Although the raw material cost is minimal or is reduced, it has a very complex process involving numerous amount of equipment because of the addition of a pretreatment unit for free fatty acids removal. According to Umer Rashid, Farooq Anwar, Amer Jamil, and Haq Nawaz Bhatti (2010) in their Jatropha curcas Seed Oil as a Viable Source for Biodiesel; the characteristics of Jathropa curcas seed oil is in good agreement in the specifications of ASTM D 6751 and EN 1424 making it usable as a biodiesel feedstock. In their research it was identified that Jathropa curcas has linoleic and palmatic acid. These two kinds of acids are the ones required for seed oil or corm oil for a plant to be usable as a biodiesel feedstock. Fortunately, these two acids were also present in Taro corm. According to Angelique Y. Lopez, Leanne Ermine G. Ramoneda, and Kenneth Bryan C. Samson (October 14, 2010) in their Turning Janitor Fish of Candaba from Pest into Biodiesel; the characteristics of janitor fish is capable of making a biodiesel

because of its high essential fatty acids. Because of its richness in oil, came out to study in producing biodiesel out of janitor fish. Luckily, the oil which is necessary in biodiesel is present in Taro corm. According to Gemma Vicente, Mercedes Martnez, Jos Aracil, and Alfredo Esteban (2005) in their Biodiesel from Sunflower; the kinetics of sunflower oil methanolysis reaction yields methyl esters or biodiesel and glycerol and consists of three consecutive reversible reactions. Sunflower oil also contains palmitic acid. Another is that high linoleic sunflower oil typically has at least 69% linoleic acid. Fortunately, Taro corm has these acids which are essential in producing biodiesel. State of the Art With the increasing demand of petroleum products like fuel in the world market, the price of fuel increases incrementally affecting several primary needs. Rising problems about global warming or climate change due to these petroleum products also increase the search for an alternative that is why the researchers came up with the idea of converting Taro or Colocasia esculenta corm into biodiesel. The study is supported by many related studies proving that Taro has the qualifications for biodiesel production. It has palmitic and linoleic acid that was also found in the oils of sunflower seeds [Gemma Vicente, Mercedes Martnez, Jos Aracil, and Alfredo Esteban (2005)], Jathropa curcas seeds [Umer Rashid, Farooq Anwar, Amer Jamil, and Haq Nawaz Bhatti (2010)] and the fatty acids found in the janitor fish [Angelique Y. Lopez, Leanne Ermine G. Ramoneda, and Kenneth Bryan C. Samson (October 14, 2010)]. These will be a good research since abundance of this kind of plant is found in tropical countries

like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Philippines.