Investigating the Production of Biodiesel from Alphonso Mango Seed Oil

Abstract

Alphonso Mango seed oil was investigated as a feedstock to determine some of the suitable parameters such as reaction temperature, time of reaction and oil to methanol ratio, that are suitable for biodiesel production. The preliminary investigation of the oil was carried out to determine the acid value from which the percentage free fatty acid (%FFA) was calculated. The acid value and %FFA were 35.90 and 17.95mg KOH/g respectively. This necessitated a three steps esterification of the oil sample for reduction of the %FFA to 0.547mgKOH/g and later transesterification of the oil. The effect of reaction temperature, reaction time and oil to methanol ratio on production of biodiesel from the oil was then investigated. Optimum yield of biodiesel from this oil were obtained at 600C, 60mins (1 hour) and at 1:4 of oil to methanol ratio. The important properties of the biodiesel like the flashpoint, cetane number, kinematic viscosity, Iodine value, density and saponification value were determined and they were found to be 146OC, 76, 3.6mm2/s, 29.46mEq/g, 0.87g/cm3and145.15mgKOH/g respectively. The various values obtained were compared with specifications of ASTM D6751 standard and established that the Alphonso mango seed oil methyl ester could be used as an alternative to/or blended with petrodiesel.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v33i4.10