TAINAN, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prof. (Emeritus) Aharon Gedanken from the Department of Chemistry at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, recently visited National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), southern Taiwan, to continue his research in converting waste cooking oils into biodiesel with the research team in NCKU.
“We are converting basically waste cooking oil into biofuel and now we can convert 3 liters per hour,” said Gedanken when briefing his ongoing project to NCKU president Hwung-Hweng Hwung on September 5.
Currently a visiting chair professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), NCKU, Gedanken is a pioneer of sonochemistry and an expert in the fabrication of nanostructures.
His team in NCKU has developed a process to convert used cooking oil to biodiesel using microwaves and strontium oxide (SrO) as catalyst.
With the system designed by the team, a machine has been built by a company in Taiwan.
“The machine is made in Taiwan and working very well comparing it with similar ones I have at home,” according to Gedanken.
The converting machine has been set up in the department and ready to yield more biofuel in the coming months, according to MSE Distinguished Professor Jiunn-Der Liao who has invited Gedanken to cooperate with NCKU faculty conducting the research.
Prof. Liao said that with Gedanken’s help NCKU is going to set up a converting station at An-nan campus and hopefully will collect more waste cooked oil for the demonstration.
"Prof. Gedanken has been named as one of ISI's Highly Cited Researchers and his study has been cited in more than 14,000 scientific articles. We're honored to invite him over to conduct the research project as visiting chair professor," said Liao.
He also said, “Our goal is to introduce the station to companies in Taiwan or abroad which are into the bio-energy business.”
So far, we have received inquiries from Thailand, Malaysia, and at least three domestic enterprises, according to Liao.
The three-year project supported and conducted by NCKU, started in August 2013 and is now in the second year. NCKU is about to realize the project and conduct the experiment with a larger scale to set up a station.
