Abstract
This study examines the synthesis of biodiesel from African pear oil using catalyst assisted transesterification (One-step) process. The D. edulis used in this study were obtained from Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. The pulp oil was extracted and subjected to physicochemical analysis and gas chromatography was used to check the free fatty acid content. The yield of the oil was 47% which is highly significant. Gas-chromatographic analysis of the oil extract showed free fatty acid content as palmitic acid 26.41%, stearic acid 24.56%, oleic acid 2.20% and others 46.83% for the pulp. The physicochemical parameter of synthesized oil revealed density; 0.98 ± 6.01 mg/dm3, saponification number; 199.16 ± 6.09 mgKOH/g, acid number; 1.85 ± 0.08 mgKOH/g, iodine number; 74.98 ± 2.83 wijs, and peroxide value; 11.80 ± 0.29 mEq/kg. The African pear showed almost same level of saturation and unsaturation. Biodiesel yield of the pulp oil attained optimum yield of 87% at the oil/methanol molar ratio of 1:6 and temperature of 60°C. The properties of the produced biodiesel were specific gravity 0.89 ± 0.12, kinematic viscosity was 2.80 ± 0.14 mm2/s, water and sediment 0.020 ± 0.0021%, the acid number was 0.15 ± 0.020 mgKOH/g, cetane number 63, pour point -13°C, flash point 137°C and sulphur contents 0.02%m/m. These values were within standards for petrodiesel. It therefore shows that the D. edulis oil could serve as a good source of feedstock for biodiesel synthesis.
Highlights
The use of fossil fuels have been on since the industrial revolution in Europe, as they were the cheapest and available source of energy and the world depended on it to service its economy
Transesterification process could be used to produce biodiesel from biomass, it is the process of converting the fatty acids from their glycerol backbone to form fatty acid ester (FAE) [3]
The result of free fatty acid and the physicochemical parameters of the Oil obtained from the pulp of African pear are presented in Tables 1 and 2
Summary
The use of fossil fuels have been on since the industrial revolution in Europe, as they were the cheapest and available source of energy and the world depended on it to service its economy. Biomass can be used for energy in several ways; such as the conversion into liquid and gaseous fuel like ethanol and biodiesel respectively, for use in domestic and industrial generation of energy as well as in mobile source combustion [2]. Fatty acid esters commonly known as biodiesel can be produced through the batch or continuous process by transesterifying triglycerides such as animal fat or vegetable oil with lower molecular weight alcohols in the presence of an alkali or acid catalyst. This is a typical reaction that occurs step wisely, resulting in the formation of monoglycerides and diglycerides as intermediate.
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