Biodiesel Production from Melia azedarach and Ricinus communis Oil by Transesterification Process

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel usually produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. This study investigates the extraction of oil and its conversion into biodiesel by base-catalyzed transesterification. Firstly, the effect of various solvents (methanol, n-hexane, chloroform, di-ethyl ether) on extraction of oil from non-edible crops, such as R. communis and M. azedarach, were examined. It was observed that a higher concentration of oil was obtained from R. communis (43.6%) as compared to M. azedarach (35.6%) by using methanol and n-hexane, respectively. The extracted oils were subjected to NaOH (1%) catalyzed transesterification by analyzing the effect of oil/methanol molar ratio (1:4, 1:6, 1:8 and 1:10) and varying temperature (20, 40, 60 and 80 °C) for 2.5 h of reaction time. M. azedarach yielded 88% and R. communis yielded 93% biodiesel in 1:6 and 1:8 molar concentrations at ambient temperature whereas, 60 °C was selected as an optimum temperature, giving 90% (M. azedarach) and 94% (R. communis) biodiesel. The extracted oil and biodiesel were characterized for various parameters and most of the properties fulfilled the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard biodiesel. The further characterization of fatty acids was done by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) and oleic acid was found to be dominant in M. azedarach (61.5%) and R. communis contained ricinoleic acid (75.53%). Furthermore, the functional groups were analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The results suggested that both of the oils are easily available and can be used for commercial biodiesel production at a cost-effective scale.

Ricinus Communis Seed oils as a Source of Biodiesel; A Renewable Form of Future Energy

“…59) and the seed oils were reported to possess an excellent energy substitute properties. The physicochemical results of the biodiesel showed that it can be used in any diesel engine (53). Many studies on the production of biodiesel from vegetable and seed oils were presented (5, 16, 43, 60-65) and the results are also in good agreement with the findings of this work.…”

Advancements in Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) Seed Oils for Biodiesel Production

“…On the other hand, food shortages may occur due to the use of large amounts of edible oils in producing biodiesel, especially in poor countries. These drawbacks can be overcome by using inedible oils for biodiesel production like Aleurites trisperma , bitter almond, Brucea javanica seeds, Argemone Mexicana, wild mustard ( Brassica Juncea L. ) seed, and tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) seed ( Arumugam et al, 2017 ; Muthukumaran et al, 2017 ; Jain, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019 ; Adepoju, 2020 ; Tlili et al, 2020 ). Generally, tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum , which is an annual plant in the Solanaceae family with leaves harvested to manufacture cigarettes, is widespread in China and North and South America, and the leaves are commonly harvested.…”

Photocatalytic Pretreatment of Commercial Lignin Using TiO2-ZnO Nanocomposite-Derived Advanced Oxidation Processes for Methane Production Synergy in Lab Scale Continuous Reactors

“…These approaches mainly included chemical (acid-base), biological (enzymatic) and mechanical (grinding) pretreatment methods to help increase the bioavailability of usable biomass. These previously employed approaches have some strategic, economic and operational issues such as temperature, pressure, pH, clean up, lower outputs and contamination in the anaerobic digester [5].…”