Biodiesel Production from Moringa Oleifera Seed Oil using MgO/Al2O3 Catalyst

Abstract

Increase in world fuel consumption, rising in fuel price, depletion of fossil fuels and global warming problems lead to the search for renewable alternative sources of energy. Moringa oleifera seed oil had been identified as one of the non-edible biodiesel feedstock but it problem is high free fatty acid content, in an attempt to search for suitable catalyst which produce low acid content biodiesel, the suitability of using MgO/Al₂O₃ as a catalyst in the transesterification of moringa oleifera seed oil into biodiesel was investigated. The transeseterification was done using methanol and 5wt. % MgO/Al₂O₃, at 60℃ using response surface method. The moringa oleifera methyl ester (MOME) produced  had an acid number of  0.2 mgKOH/g , carbon residue of 0.02 wt. %, cetane number of 48.2 , cloud pont of -13℃ and density of 0.87 g/cm³ . It had a flash point of 140℃, higher heating value of 41.58 MJ/Kg, pour point of -10℃ and a viscosity of 4.6 mm²/s.  All the properties of the MOME were within the acceptable ASTM limits which indicates that MgO/Al₂O₃ is a suitable heterogenous catalyst for the production of MOME.