Potential and comparative studies of six non-edible seed oil feedstock’s for biodiesel production

ABSTRACT

     Biodiesel is a clean, renewable fuel that is the best alternative to diesel, but feedstock costs more than 70%. Biodiesel development requires cheap feedstock with high oil content. Biodiesel from non-edible plants is cheap, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly. In the present work, six different sources were explored with seed oil content including Simmondsia chinensis (51%), Melia Azedarach (42.7%), Pongamia pinnata (42%), Cannabis sativa (39%), Citrus reticulate (29.5%), and Phoenix dactylifera (17%) respectively. The obtained oil contents were higher than previous studies. The quality of biodiesel was assessed by physico-chemical methods, viscosity (2.9-5.7), density (868-910), cetane number (49-58), flashpoint (137-187), and free fatty acid (0.3-1.21). Optimal conditions were implemented for transesterification, to obtain the highest biodiesel yields up to 98%. Through Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry study, 5-7 fatty acids were detected respectively. Through Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and Elemental analyzer analysis, environmental friendly biodiesel was obtained in which sulphur (0.0013-0.0091%), nitrogen (1.41-1.96%), and oxygen content was (9.33-11.43%). All plants have good physicochemical qualities that met American standard testing material D6751 and European norms 14214 standards. The growth of these plants on barren lands as a substitute energy source for the production of biodiesel is supported by our research on a sound scientific basis.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Citrus reticulate
• Cannabis sativa
• biodiesel
• non-edible seed sources
• transesterification reaction

Nomenclature and symbols

Nomenclature	=	Symbols
Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba)	=	JS
Melia Azedarach (Bakaayan)	=	BS
Pongamia pinnata (Pongamia/Karanja)	=	PS
Cannabis sativa (Hemp)	=	HS
Citrus reticulate (Mandarin)	=	MS
Phoenix dactylifera (Date palm)	=	DS
American Standard Testing Material	=	ASTM
European norms	=	EN
Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry	=	GCMS
Cetane number	=	CN
Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy	=	ICP-OES
Elemental analyzer	=	EA
Fourier transform Infra-red	=	FTIR
Nuclear magnetic resonance	=	NMR
Jojoba seed oil	=	JSO
Bakaayan seed oil	=	BSO
Pongamia seed oil	=	PSO
Hemp seed oil	=	HSO
Date Palm seed oil	=	DSO
Mandarin seed oil	=	MSO
Jojoba seed oil biodiesel	=	JSOBD
Bakaayan seed oil biodiesel	=	BSOBD
Karanja/Pongamia seed oil biodiesel	=	PSOBD
Hemp seed oil biodiesel	=	HSOBD
Date Palm seed oil biodiesel	=	DSOBD
Mandarin seed oil biodiesel	=	MSOBD
Fatty acid methyl esters	=	FAMEs
Free fatty acid	=	FFA
Seed oil content	=	SOC

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant no. (51974182), Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning under grant No. (TP2015039), National 111 Project (The Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to University), Grant Award Number: D17002, China Baowu Low Carbon Metallurgy Innovation Foundation-BWLCF202112 and The Open Project Program of Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Engineering & Resource Recycling (Anhui University of Technology) No: SKF20-01.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Authors’ contributions

Inam Ullah Khan present the idea, carried out all the experiments and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Yaowei Yu and Hongming Long revised the data and manuscript carefully.

Ethical statement

This is to certify that study has been undertaken by keeping in preview and adherence to research ethics.

Supporting data

The Supplementary material is provided as a supplementary file.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15435075.2023.2222309