DEVELOPING BIOFUELS PRODUCTION FROM FOOD INDUSTRY WASTES IN THE RURAL AREA OF KENYA

DEVELOPING BIOFUELS PRODUCTION FROM FOOD INDUSTRY WASTES IN THE RURAL AREA OF KENYA ( ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC PROJECT TOPIC)

ABSTRACT

In this thesis the possibility of producing ethanol, from local food industry’s sugary fruits, berries and fruit juices, for the production of biodiesel, is determined. This ethanol can also be used as a fuel for motor vehicles. Ethanol is supposed to be produced by fermenting the sugary crops with the presence of yeast. In suitable an-aerobic conditions the yeast will convert sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. After the fermenting process the solid particles will be removed. After separation the ethanol will be distilled from the water and the other content, into the required alcohol content. After distillation and dehydration process this ethanol can be used in biodiesel production or as a fuel for vehicles.

The goal of the experiment was to see if the production of ethanol is possible.

Result: The ethanol production from sugary fruits and fruit juices is possible.

In this thesis the attributes of different kind of solid fuels that are used in households, e.g. the gross calorific value, lower heating value, moisture, ash content and flue gas content, are defined. The fuels used are carbon-ized husks from croton nut, husks from croton nut that are compressed into briquettes, typical Kenyan firewood and typical Kenyan charcoal.

The goal of the analysis was to determine if the croton husk briquette and the carbonized croton husks are safer fuels than the original fuels.

Results: Charcoal has better lower calorific value than the Carbonized croton husk but the carbonized husks pro-duce less dangerous flue gas than charcoal. The properties of Croton husk briquettes are almost equal to fire-wood.

INTRODUCTION

The client, Horizon Business Ventures, produces plant oil from many kind of different seeds. This plant oil is then processed into biodiesel by transesterification process, which requires ethanol or methanol. Currently the client doesn’t refine the plant oil into biodiesel due to high price of metha-nol and ethanol but rather sells the raw plant oil as it is with lower profit.

The client was looking for a cheaper alternative for high price methanol, so I proposed making the ethanol by ourselves out of fruit waste that local food industry was throwing away. So the goal of the project was to determine if ethanol can be produced from the fruit waste with fermentation method.

DEVELOPING BIOFUELS PRODUCTION FROM FOOD INDUSTRY WASTES IN THE RURAL AREA OF KENYA ( ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC PROJECT TOPIC)