Comparative Study of Biofuel Potentials of Adansonia digitata, Citrullus lanatus and Lagenaria siceraria seedoils

Abstract

Alternative fuel is an important issue globally due to efforts sought to combat emissions which currently pose strong threat to a clean environment. This study was carried out to expose the Biofuel potentials of lagenaria, adansonia and citrullus seeds oil compared with Jatropha curcas oil. The investigation covered physicochemical characterization of their triglycerides and production of mono-alkyl esters. Oils extracted from these seeds were dissolved in ethyl acetate and analyzed for fatty acids composition using GC-MS. The results showed percentage oil yield of > 44% for all the three seeds. Some of the important fuel parameters such as flash point, Diesel Index, sulfur content, acid value, Iodine value and other properties compared favorably with those of Jatropha curcas and showed compliance with ASTM standard specification. Oleic acid is dominant in adansonia oil, while linoleic is most dominant in lagenaria and citrullus seed oils. Other pronounce fatty acids present in all the oils include palmitic, stearic, eicosanoic and some amounts of non-fatty compounds. The fatty acids observed in the seed oils are similar to those of soybean, rape, sunflower and jatropha seeds oil. Thus, the results indicate that, the studied seed oils are suitable for mono-alkyl esters production.

Keywords: Lagenaria siceraria, mono-alkyl ester, Diesel Index, Biofuel, non-fatty acids compounds.