The high price of different biodiesels and the need for many of their raw ingredients as food materials are the main constraints to be overcome when seeking the best potential alternative fuels to petro-diesel. Apart from that, some properties like high density, viscosity and acid value along with low cloud and pour points preclude their use in compression ignition (CI) engines as these properties can cause serious damage to the parts of the engine and reduce engine life. In this experiment, biodiesel was produced from the oil of unused algae by a two-step 'acid esterification followed by transesterification' procedure. Taguchi's method was applied to design the experiment, and a L25 orthogonal array was prepared to optimize the biodiesel production procedure. The optimized conditions for transesterification were: methanol to oil molar ratio of 6:1, catalyst (KOH) concentration of 2.5 wt%, reaction time of 90 min and reaction temperature of 50°C, achieving a biodiesel production of 89.7% with free fatty acid content of 0.25%. It was found that the CI engine emitted less CO, CO 2 and hydrocarbon and higher NO x using algal biodiesel than that using petro-diesel. All properties of the algal biodiesel were within the limit of ASTM standards.
Biodiesel is an alternative renewable fuel which is produced by using biomass resources. Its physicochemical properties are close to those of the petroleum diesel fuel. This study highlights biodiesel production from safflower seed oil. The main aim of this experimental work is to optimize the process parameters, namely the methanolto-oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction time and reaction temperature for biodiesel production. The Taguchi robust design approach was used with an L9 orthogonal array to analyze the influence of process factors on performance parameters. The results showed that the optimum yield of biodiesel was 93.8% with viscosity 5.60 cSt, with a methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 4:1, catalyst concentration of 1.5 wt%, reaction time of 90 min and reaction temperature of 60°C. The catalyst concentration was found to be the most influencing parameter which contributed 51.1% and 50.8% of the total effect on the yield of biodiesel, Y 1 , and viscosity of biodiesel, Y 2 , respectively.
Biodiesel from inedible sources has become prominent in last few decades. But it is economically incompatible with petroleum diesel. At the same time, both petro-diesel and biodiesels are concerned with environmental pollution, global warming, etc. Algae, on the other hand, utilize CO 2 for their growth and can minimize some sort of pollution level and results in carbon credit for a country. In Punjab, India, algae are seen to grow in many water bodies. But all those are taken away and dumped in vats. Some of this huge biomass was used for production of biodiesel in this work. Extraction of oil from algae was conducted by using Soxtherm (solvent extraction). An amount of 9 wt% of algal oil was extracted by comparatively costly hexane, whereas 8% extraction was done by cheaper acetone. In the transesterification reaction, molar ratio (methanol: oil) of 6:1, catalyst (KOH) concentration of 3 wt%, reaction temperature of 60°C, 60 min reaction time and a settling time of 2.5 h were found to be optimum conditions to get maximum ester with minimum free fatty acid content and viscosity. A statistical analysis for the transesterification procedure also showed a methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 6:1 and catalyst concentration of 3 wt% to be the optimum. Characterization of biodiesel was done and compared with ASTM/BIS standards. Most important properties of biodiesel ester like viscosity (3.12 cSt or 3.12 mm 2 /s), cloud and pour point (-1 and -6°C, respectively), flash and fire point (153 and 158°C), carbon residue content (0.03%), acid number (0.36 mg of KOH/gm) were within the range of concerned standards.
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a very important compound used in different industries. Several methods are currently used to synthesize ZnO. In this study, we discuss a novel chemical route used to synthesize and purify ZnO in the nanometer scale, with full control on the particle size. Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized using a simple chemical method using polymer precursors. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The average crystallite size as measured from XRD and TEM image confirmed the particle size in the range of 30-50 nm. The SEM image was used to confirm the uniform spherical particles of zinc oxide nanoparticles.
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