Green approach for chemical production from waste cooking oils

Abstract

This work demonstrates a green conversion of waste cooking oil in a continuous mode into esters, fatty acids and hydrocarbons within seconds via cold plasma catalytic approaches. Up to 60 wt.% gaseous hydrocarbons (C₁C₆) was achieved within 11 s reaction time in hydrogen environment. Products distribution and selectivity can be easily tuned e.g. up to 43 wt.% esters (in the presence of Ni/Al₂O₃ in N₂ environment at 30 W) or up to 46 wt.% fatty acids to be obtained (BaTiO₃ packing under N₂ at 30 W). The selectivity of products is strongly influenced by the environment, e.g. H₂ environment promoting fatty acid methyl esters formation whereas hydrocarbons are dominant in N₂ environment.