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Synthesis and characterization of biodiesel from palm oil as alternative fuel for diesel engine using potassium hydroxide as catalyst


O.A. Babatunde
R.O. Yahaya
P.E. Umoru

Abstract

Biodiesel was synthesized from palm oil by alkali-catalyzed trans-esterification using potassium hydroxide as the catalyst yielding palm oil biodiesel of 69.6 %, 72.4 %, 77.1 %, 71.3 % and 75.6 % from five palm oil samples. The biodiesel produced from the five samples was characterized by some of its physicochemical properties such as specific gravity, flash point, cloud point, pour point, aniline point and cetane number. The following are the results of the physicochemical properties determined specific gravity 0.876,0.884, 0.887, 0.884, 0.889, flash point 780C, 790C Cloud point 10.30C, 8.60C,10.60C, 10.40C,11.70C, pour point 2.60C1.30C 2.70C, aniline point 17.10 C, 20.00C, and cetane number 48, 55, 62, 58, 48 respectively. The GC-MS analysis of the samples shows that four methyl esters were confirmed in two of the biodieselsample while five methyl esters were confirmed in three of the biodiesel samples. The results obtained were in conformity with American Standard Testing Method (ASTM) standard D6571 and European (EN) standard 14214 and it implies that palm oil can be used to produce biodiesel.


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eISSN: 2635-3490
print ISSN: 2476-8316