Production and Characterization of Biodieselfrom Citrullus colocynthis as Alternative EnergySource for Petrol Diesel Engine

Abstract

Biodiesel production from oil-bearing plants have attracted the attention differentscholars as a consequence of global issues such as depletion of fossil fuel reserves,global warming, and environmental pollution problems. Hence, this study focused on theproduction and characterization of biodiesel from Citrullus colocynthis oils using twostep transesterification reactions. The raw oils were extracted from Citrullus colocythisseeds, using soxhlet extractor with n-hexane as solvent. The effects of differentparameters were studied; including reaction temperature, oil to methanol molar ratio,time of transesterification reaction, and amount of alkaline catalyst in order to achievethe optimum condition to obtain the highest conversion. The results indicate that 60oCreaction temperature, 6:1 methanol to oil ratio, 90 minutes reaction time and 1.00 wt %NaOH catalysts were taken as optimum conditions for transesterification to achieve thehighest conversion of the raw oils to the corresponding biodiesel, which led to biodieselyield of 98.53%. The physicolcchemcal properties of the raw oil; acid value,saponification value, free fatty acid value, iodine value, PH value, peroxide value,density, specific gravity, calorific value, flash point, fire point, moisture content, andviscosity were characterized and compared with the reported standard values. Based onthese finding, the raw oil of the plant was acceptable for prior transesterfication reactionprocess. Therefore, the produced biodiesels and its blends were further analyzed todetermine its fuel properties, such as kinematic viscosity, caloric value, flash and firepoint, pour and cloud point, water content, moisture content, ash content, distillationtemperature, PH, free fatty acid, acid value and others as per ASTM 6751 standardmethods and compared with reported values. For comparison, commercially availablepetro-diesels fuels were analyzed using the same tests used for the produced biodiesels.The qualities of all the tested parameters of the biodiesel were found to be withininternational acceptable biodiesel and diesel standards. Hence, the produced biodiesel isused as alternative source of energy for petrodiesel engine without further modifications.