The major drawback that prevents commercialization of biodiesel is the high cost of vegetable oil feedstock. In this work, used cooking oil, which is much less expensive than fresh vegetable oil, is used as an alternative raw material. Prior to transesterification reaction, esterification was conducted and catalyzed homogeneously to eliminate free fatty acid. Heterogeneous catalyst derived from cheap and easily obtained egg-shell (industrial waste) was used for transesterification reaction. A 100% ester yield was obtained at the optimized reaction conditions, which is 5 h of reaction duration, 24:1 methanol to oil molar ratio and 4 wt% catalyst loading.
Eco-design is included within the framework of the standard for "Environmental management systems-Guidelines for incorporating Eco-design" (ISO 14006:2011). Eco-design process, as defined in standard, has six steps: (i) Specify product functions; (ii) Environmental assessment of products; (iii) Strategies of improvement; (iv) Environmental objectives; (v) Product specification; and (vi) Technical solutions.Step (ii), determination of the stage or process of the product life cycle that has the highest environmental impact; this is perhaps the most controversial step because the standard does not specify which tool should be used. This lack of specification has generated some distrust with regard to eco-design, hindering its development. In order to make a trustworthy eco-design, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) should be applied as a tool for environmental impact quantification. The main objective of this work is to apply standardised eco-design methodology for the reduction of the environmental impact of an industrial product in Spain using LCA as a tool for the environmental product assessment. LCA standardised process (ISO 14040,14044:2006) is included in the eco-design process. A glass container intended for cough syrup delivery has been selected as an industrial product to be eco-designed. Following the methodology described, the overall normalised impact decreased 35.1% when a PET container substituted a glass container. Environmental impacts have been reduced following standardised eco-design and LCA methodologies, serving as an example to industry and administration regarding how to eco-design with the confidence of obtaining reliable results.
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