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Production and characterization of liquid biofuels from locally available nonedible feedstocks
Author(s) -
Fadhil Abdelrahman B.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.2572
Subject(s) - biodiesel , biofuel , acid value , biodiesel production , chemistry , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , yield (engineering) , pyrolysis , raw material , heat of combustion , biomass (ecology) , bioenergy , materials science , pulp and paper industry , organic chemistry , chemical engineering , microbiology and biotechnology , agronomy , catalysis , composite material , biochemistry , engineering , biology , combustion
Mandarin ( Citrus reticulata ) seeds were exploited as possible nonedible feedstock for the synthesis of liquid biofuels, namely, biodiesel and bio‐oil via alkali–alcoholysis and pyrolysis routes, respectively. The alkali–alcoholysis reaction of mandarin seed oil with an equivalent mixture of methanol–ethanol alcohols was examined and optimized by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The best experimental yield of biodiesel (95.55 ± 1.55 wt.%) was comparable with the predicted yield (95.0 wt.%). Also, analysis by one‐way ANOVA showed that the selected variables were statistically significant. The 1H NMR spectroscopy asserted the transformation of the oil to biodiesel. Also, the evaluated properties of the biodiesel were in the range given by ASTM D6751 standards. The mandarin citrus seeds have also subjected to the thermal pyrolysis process in a fixed‐bed reactor to obtain bio‐oil and bio‐char. The influence of the pyrolysis temperature, time, feed particle size, and heating rate on the bio‐oil yield was optimized. The highest yield of bio‐oil (52.34 ± 1.25 wt.%) was attained at 475°C for 60 min using 70 mesh particle size of the feed with a heating rate of 20°C/min. The bio‐oil was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 1H NMR spectroscopy, and ultimate analysis. The bio‐oil derived from MCS has an empirical formula of CH1.88 O0.16 N0.012 S0.0005 with 37.96 MJ/kg of heating value. The elevated carbon level, low oxygen content, and high calorific value (25.45 MJ/kg) of the attained bio‐char suggest its suitability as a solid fuel. Also, the obtained bio‐char can be utilized for preparing carbon adsorbent as a result of its good surface area.