Experimental investigation on synthesis of biodiesel from non-edible Neem seed oil: Production optimization and evaluation of fuel properties

Abstract

Energy has always been an important part of society development. The traditional method of harnessing energy from fossil resources has proved to be not sustainable and environmentally disastrous. The energy crisis augmented with baffled economy affecting many poor and developing countries. However, with technology the difficulty has been brought to a safe level day by day. Researchers have been keen on developing several sustainable energy resources for meeting the required energy demand by reducing pressure on fossil fuel. This solves two main issues: first, it decreases the environmental pollution as burning of fossil resources leads to the emanation of harmful pollutants to the atmosphere and second, it preserves the fossil resources for future generation. Biofuel is part of such kind of development. In this study, Neem oil is selected for biodiesel preparation. Neem biodiesel is prepared from Neem seed oil using sodium hydroxide as base catalyst. The molar ratio of oil to alcohol, catalyst amount, reaction speed, temperature and time has been optimized and finally, the fuel properties are also evaluated as per ASTM standards. With optimal settings maximum yield found to be 96%. The acid value contained within 0.09 mg KOH/g and cetane number found to be 52, which is more than diesel cetane index.