Production of biodiesel from crude neem oil feedstock and its emissions from internal combustion engines

This study investigates biodiesel production using crude neem oil having high acid value, as a feedstock. The effects of some operating variables were ascertained and its combustion performance was assessed in an internal combustion engine. Due to its high acid value, the neem oil was processed via two step acid – base transesterification process. The first step reduced the acid level to <2 mgKOH/g while the second step involved direct conversion to fatty acid methyl ester using 1% NaOH as catalyst. The lowest viscosity value was used as a proxy measure to determine the extent of the reaction. The results reveal the optimum conditions for biodiesel production to be ratio 1:6 of oil to methanol and 1.5 h reaction time. The viscosity at this condition was 5.53 cSt. The same procedure was repeated for NaOCH3 catalyst concentrations of 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 1.25%. The lowest viscosity of 6.79 cSt was recorded at both 1 and 1.25% catalyst concentrations. The fuel properties of the biodiesel compared favorably with the recommendation by the American Standard Testing Method. The emissions of different blends showed that neem biodiesel has lower emissions of CO and NO than petrol diesel but higher NOX. Thus, neem oil as non-edible oil can be a good renewable raw material for biodiesel production.Key words: Neem, biodiesel, internal combustion, transesterification, free fatty acid

H3PMo12O40/Agroindustry Waste Activated Carbon-Catalyzed Esterification of Lauric Acid with Methanol: A Renewable Catalytic Support

The heterogeneous catalytic route to produce biodiesel can reduce the amount of effluents generated in the steps of esters purification and allows the reuse of catalysts. Specially, when the catalytic supports are synthesized from biomass wastes the process become even more environmentally friendly. In this work, we have synthesized activate carbons (ACs) from agroindustry waste generated after the extraction of essential oil of Candeia wood residue. These ACs were used to support H3PMo12O40. The performances of all the supported catalysts were evaluated on the lauric acid esterification reactions with methanol. The catalysts were produced through impregnation method, varying the H3PMo12O40 load and the support nature (i.e. commercial AC or produced from agroindustry residue). All materials were characterized by thermal analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM, EDS, BET surface area and powder X-ray diffraction. The catalysts showed good thermal stability. Data of the X-ray diffraction indicated that regardless support origin, a high dispersion of H3PMo12O40 was achieved. High turnover numbers were achieved by the H3PMo12O40/AC catalysts; 7205 for 10 wt% H3PMo12O40/commercial AC and 3571 for 10 wt% H3PMo12O40/agroindustry waste AC. Tests of reuse and leaching of the catalysts were also carried out. A strong deactivation of the catalyst was observed when it was reused directly, without previous treatment