Extraction and characterization of biodiesel from mango seed kernel oil.

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable Source of energy that can be used as.an alternative to the fossil fuels which are non-renewable, expensive and are more environmental degrading due to excessive emissions produced during combustion in the diesel engines. Biodiesel is a mono alkyl ester of fatty acids derived from Vegetable oils and animal fats and waste cooking oil and it has: similar combustion properties to regular fossil diesel Fuel. Biodiesel is biodegradable, nontoxic, and has significantly fewer emissions- than petroleum-based diesel when burned. This paper provides more insight about the extraction and characterization of biodiesel from mango seed kernel oil. Mango seed kernel oil is oil that is obtained from the seed kernels by extraction, it contains 44.0% moisture, protein, 12.8% fat, 32.8% carbohydrates. The percentage of the. fat content provides the potential of the oil to produce biodiesel. The process of biodiesel extraction is called transesterification and. it includes a reaction of a vegetable oil with an alcohol using a catalyst. This chemical reaction converts an ester (vegetable oil or fat) into a mixture of esters of the fatty acids that makes up the oil (or fat). The alcohol used in this research. was Methanol and the catalyst was Potassium Hydroxide (KOH). The properties studied in this research were: the cetane number, Iodine value, saponification value, acid value, flash point, cloud and pour point, methanol content, total glycerol, kinematic viscosity and others. Biodiesel can be blended into fossil diesel in different ratios like B20: B40 in order to reduce on high emissions caused by the fossil fuels, and also to reduce on the high costs on the fossils fuels since there are no engines which purely run on the biofuels.