Abstract
In the awakening of Nigeria biofuel economy and reduced carbon footprint revolution, her targeted feedstocks such as sweet sorghum and palm oil are hidden threat to food security. To avoid this scenario, the present study derived fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) from Nigerian spent palm and peanut oils (NSPO and NSPeO) as cheap and non-food feedstocks for biodiesel and safe environment. Fresh and spent Nigerian palm oil (NPO) and peanut oil (NPeO) were converted into FAME by one and two steps alkali transesterification using 6:1 molar ratio of methanol to oil, 1.0 % wt. potassium hydroxide pellets as catalyst at 60 o C over 1 hr. Characterization of feedstocks and FAME were carried out using European (EN) and USA (ASTM) norms for quality biodiesel. The quality of final FAME obtained after two-steps alkali transesterification were within international norms for biodiesel except for alkali and alkaline earth metals that required further removal using adsorption process as a post-transesterification treatment. The present study reveals Nigerian spent palm and peanut oils as potential non-food feedstocks for biodiesel production to safe food security and environment.
Highlights
Nigeria needs to prepare for post-fossil fuel future to achieve a buoyant and sustainable economy
Characteristics of Nigerian palm oil (NPO), NPeO, NSPO, and Nigerian spent peanut oil (NSPeO) as biodiesel: Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the biofuel properties of the assessed feedstocks and reveals higher mean viscosity, AV, FP, CC, ash, water and sediment for all the feedstocks when compared to standard norms for biodiesel (ASTM D6751, EN 14213 and EN 14214)
AV, and CC were observed for Spent vegetable oils (SpVOs) over neat SVOs, which might be due to heterogeneous mixture of the former constituting particulate matter, organic impurities, oxidative degradation and polymerization products (Bart et al, 2010)
Summary
Nigeria needs to prepare for post-fossil fuel future to achieve a buoyant and sustainable economy. The Estelvina et al (2011) analysis of the effect of biodiesel on food safety indicates trend of rising food prices with increasing oil prices but not increasing production of biofuel directly due to its insignificant proportion in the world energy supply. Spent vegetable oils (SpVOs) are type of WVOs that are no longer useful for recycling into food preparations for They are no longer healthy and safe for consumption due to high carbon residues and oxidation products that are toxic to human body (Felizardo et al, 2006). As part of concerted efforts in search of complementing non-food bioresources for biodiesel production in Nigeria, the present study assessed the potential of SpVOs as bioresource for FAME production as standard biodiesel using one and two steps transesterification process
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