Production and Characterization of Biodiesel Derived from a Novel Source Koelreuteria paniculata Seed Oil

Inam Ullah Khan, Zhenhua Yan and Jun Chen
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Inam Ullah Khan: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Zhenhua Yan: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Jun Chen: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Biodiesel is a clean and renewable fuel, which is considered as the best alternative to diesel fuel, but the feedstock contributes more than 70% of the cost. The most important constituent essential for biodiesel development is to explore cheap feedstock with high oil content. In this work, we found novel non-edible plant seeds of Koelreuteria paniculata (KP) with high oil contents of 28–30 wt.% and low free fatty acid contents (0.91%), which can serve as a promising feedstock for biodiesel production. KP seed oil can convert into biodiesel/fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by base-catalyzed transesterification with the highest biodiesel production of 95.2% after an optimization process. We obtained the optimal transesterification conditions, i.e., oil/methanol ratio (6:1), catalyst concentration (0.32), reaction temperature (65 °C), stirring rate (700 rpm), and reaction time (80 min). The physico-chemical properties and composition of the FAME were investigated and compared with mineral diesel. The synthesized esters were confirmed and characterized by the application of NMR ( 1 H and 13 C), FTIR, and GC-MS. The biofuel produced from KP seed oil satisfies the conditions verbalized by ASTM D6751 and EN14214 standards. Accordingly, KP source oil can be presented as a novel raw material for biofuel fabrication.

Keywords: Koelreuteria paniculata biodiesel; non-edible feedstock; transesterification; physicochemical characterization; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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