A feasibility study to produce biodiesel from date seed oil by using trans- esterification process.

Abstract

There is a need to produce renewable energy resources to reduce the gap between supplyand demand. The renewable energy can be generated from various kinds of resources likevegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel is one of alternative energy resources that can beanappealingoptiontosolvemanyofglobalandenvironmental issues andcrises.Production of biodiesel from several types of vegetable oils has become a promisingoption. The aim of this technical project is to produce biodiesel from date seedoil. Thedateseed oil is extracted from the date seeds. The date seed is mixed with methanol in1:3 ratio in presence of catalyst. The mixture was kept in a hot air oven at 55 -60 degreescentigrade for six hours. The Trans esterification process produced a glycerol and methylester which is the biodiesel. The glycerol settled down due to its high-density and theupper layer was biodiesel (methyl ester) due to less density. The mixture was separatedusing a separating funnel. The biodiesel was purified by recovering methanol by usingrotary evaporator. The biodiesel produced from date seed oil is analyzed for the viscosity,density,thecalorificvaluewasalsoobtained,andtheFlashandFirepointwasperformed, determine the functional elements of biodiesel using Gas Chromatography. Itwas observed by gas chromatography analysis that the produced biodiesel contains nearly70% of methyl ester which is a main component of biodiesel. The density of producedbiodiesel was 0.895 g/cm3.The standard biodiesel density is 0.85 g/cm3. The results werecomparedwithstandardbiodieselvalues.Also,theproducedbiodieselhasbeencomparedwith thequalityofstandard biodiesel.Theprojectyielded betterresults.