Production and characterization of biodiesel from Allamanda (Allamanda cathartica) oil using lipase as catalyst

Abstract

Biodiesel was produced from allamanda oil by transesterification of the oil using lipase as catalyst. The amount of enzyme, time and temperature were found to have an immerse effect on biodiesel synthesis. The conversion increased with temperatue up to 40 0C. About 97% yield of biodiesel was obtained using 0.5mg/ml of lipase with 1: 4 oil to ethanol molar ratio at 40 0C for 2 hours. The fuel properties of allamanda oil ethyl ester showed that the specific density of biodiesel produced was 0.88g/ml while that of the standard value was 0.85-0.89 mg/ml. The specific gravity of the diesel was 0.87 mg/ml which was within the range 0.86-0.88 mg/ml for standard values. The viscosity of the biodiesel produced was 4.6, the refractive index of the biodiesel was 1.46, the flash point of the diesel produced was 117, and this value was well above 100 for a typical biodiesel as provided by the national soy diesel development board for biodiesel. All the fuel properties compared favorably with international biodiesel specification as provided by American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) and National Soy Diesel Development Board for Biodiesel.