Chicken Fat
A decade ago, I was still a student a VSULHS, a Laboratory High School in Philippines.
My co-researcher Ms. Go and our research Adviser, Engr. Ongy (MMBM), had a hard time communicating since I didn't have a mobile phone back then and only rarely able to be online.
It took us months of waiting and testing various seed as medium for research such as Lead tree seeds and Rambutan seeds, but to no avail, the grinding machines were just spewing the seeds without enough seed oil.
Engr. Ongy referred us to a research of our senior about a promising source of biodiesel—Chicken fat!
The previous research was about if oven-roasted chicken will make biodiesel, so with our adviser, we set a goal to determine its Physico-chemical properties as a biodiesel.
Collection of Oven-roasted Chicken By-product
During the first few visits with various branches of a branded roasted chicken store, the crew were still agreeable and happily gave us bottles of the the oven-roasted chicken by-product after shifts.
But in the succeeding weeks, they have been skeptical of us and started to refuse to do any transaction with us. Internally, we have argued, but wasn't able to prove, that they were just throwing away the liquid by-product in the nearby sewer, which is was different from their statement.
Liquid By-product Filtration
The problem with the liquid by-product is it's contaminated with water, food seasonings, condiments, and other residue.
That was a major issue with the consistency among different treatments and samples, with the previous research and our research.
We have only performed basic filtration using cheesecloth and with no additional mechanical or chemical processing, no testing for detecting water, fat, dissolved contaminants, and other minute residues.
Biodiesel Production
We planned four treatments of varying fat, alcohol, and base catalyst ratios with three samples to determine which was better in terms of Physico-chemical properties.
We have performed the biodiesel production called "transesterification" (Trans-Ester-ification) in the, now defunct building, Plant Oil Technology Center with their equipment, materials, and laboratory at no cost.
Analysis
To be further to analyze the biodiesel, we were referred to the current Head of the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry of that time, Dr. Calibo.
Some of the chemical properties include Saponification value (soap, soapy) and carbon residue (combustion) which are important in determining the quality of each treatments.
Treatments and samples were also compared by their colors, some were darker and some were lighter.
The analysis data were then forwarded to the Department od Statistics for Statistical Analysis in order to derived conclusions
Our conclusions includes:
- the quality of oven-roasted by-product affects the biodiesel quality;
- certain ratio of fat-alcohol-ethanol performed better in the physico-chemical analysis; and
- small-scale production is not economically practical
Our recommendations for further studies include:
- quality assurance of pre-treatment fat mixture; and
- economical viability at large-scale production
- actual usage and analysis on diesel vehicles (not included in the research paper)
Takeaways
After a decade, I have a realization that growing in an environment-aware institution had shaped much of my yearning to go back to the basics.
For years before, I have joined symposiums and activities that promote awareness of a healthy and clean environment, and even joined various poster-making contests about reforestation and on other themes.
Visayas State University, is a eco-toursim site, labaled as a Dark Green school. True to its advocacy, the school is populated with almost-century old trees and has an active tradition of tree planting for graduates asides from environment-aware research and extension projects.
It's unquestionable, we can't immediately halt the use of petrol products, even now there's still a growing demand for oil and gas, even multi-billion dolalr companies investing in Artificial Intelligence to search for more oil reserves.
Truth is we can't totally go green, not yet.
There will be no real demand for something that doesn't exist. Finding alternatives and actually using it will make a cut from the demand of non-renewable resources until the demand grows for renewable which in turn will make more research into way how to economical increase its supply.
There are a lot of sources and methods to produce biodiesel, such as seeds, algae, and many more—and we still have a lot to discover and learn.
Biodiesel is now becoming more common as mixture to existing gasoline formula, the only problem is marketing it as Green, but is still largely non-renewable per Liter. Some people don't even care much, as long as they can save and their cars would run.
Tags: Oven-roasted By-product, Chicken Fat, Biodiesel
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About Me
 | Onie Maniego was born in Leyte, PH. He grew up in a rural area with a close-knit community and a simple lifestyle, he is often visiting his father's orchards during summer and weekends, which has a great impact on his works. |
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