Assessment of Milk Bush Seed Oil as an Auspicious Feedstock for Biodiesel Fuel

It is indubitable that world energy demand is increasing drastically due to rapidly growing population and urbanization. It is not obscure that biodiesel would make a massively copious contribution to the energy demand at a time when the populace is becoming increasingly conscious of the declining reserves of fossil fuels and detrimental environmental effects it poses. There are several potential feedstocks that can be used for biodiesel production. The second generation feedstocks which are the non-edible vegetable oils could be considered as promising replacement for first generation feedstocks which are the edible vegetable oils. The usage of non-edible vegetable oil in the production of biodiesel is very significant because of the profuse demand for edible oils as food source. Moreover, first generation’s feedstock costs are exorbitant to be used as fuel. However, in this study, non-edible milk bush (Thevettia peruviana) seed in which its seed is enrich with oil and can be grown in arid and semi-arid condition, on waste land, roadsides and road-dividers in expressways for beautification, environmental protection and hated by herbivorous animals, was used in biodiesel production. The oil was extracted with n-hexane using soxhlet apparatus with which ample amount (60.2%) of oil was extracted. Biodiesel was produced via trans-esterification process from the crude oil of milk bush (Thevetia peruviana) seed with methanol. The optimum condition was obtained at molar ratio 6:1 of alcohol to oil, temperature of 55°C, reaction time of 60 minutes and sodium hydroxide as the base catalyst adopted. Some fuel properties (kinematic viscosity, centane number, flash point, density, cloud point, acid value and moisture) of the biodiesel produced were determined. Results obtained for these fuel properties are 4.48 mm 2/s, 55, 135°C, 0.866, 4, 0.1 mgKOH/g, 0.03% for kinematic viscosity at 40°C, centane number, flash point, density, cloud point, acid value and moisture content respectively. The results obtained were in agreement with ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards. In conclusion, it has been found that there is an immense chance to produce biodiesel from milk bush (Thevetia peruviana) seed oil and therefore it can boost the future production of biodiesel.