Egyptian scholar at Assam university develops biodiesel from food waste

Khalifa Said H. Eldeihy worked on residual food items such as soybean cooking oil waste and leaves of radish and sweet potato

Leaves of radish and sweet potato are potent sources for producing low-cost biodiesel from waste cooking oil, an Egyptian scholar and his associates at central Assam’s Tezpur University have discovered.

Their studies have been published in the latest editions of two leading science journals – Renewable Energy and Industrial Crops & Products. One is on producing biodiesel from waste soybean oil using radish leaves as a base catalyst while the other is on producing biodiesel from microalgal oil and waste cooking oil using waste sweet potato leaves as catalyst.

Khalifa Said H. Eldiehy from Alexandria in Egypt is the lead author of both the studies. The other authors include his supervisor Manabendra Mandal of the university’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Dhanapati Deka of the university’s Department of Energy.

The new and innovative chemical process has significantly reduced the cost of the production of biofuel, a long-term quest of scientists around the globe, Mr. Eldiehy said.

“Our primary intention is to stop climate change. Day-to-day food items such as used cooking oil, thrown away by households and restaurants as waste, can be used as feedstock for producing biodiesel at a much lower cost,” he said.

Agricultural wastes are promising sources for producing renewable and sustainable clean energies, Prof. Mandal said.

“Generally, biodiesel is produced by the reaction between triglyceride feedstock and alcohol in the presence of a catalyst to form the fatty acid methyl ester (biodiesel) and glycerol,” he explained.