Physico-Chemical Characteristics of Biodiesel Produced via Transesterification of Commercial Vegetable (Soya Bean) Oil

Abstract

The search for alternative and renewable fuels has increased globally in recent times owing to the increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas. In this work, biodiesel was produced from soya bean oil via transesterification with methanol in the presence of catalyst (sodium hydroxide). The biodiesel was purified adopting the wet purification method. The clean biodiesel was characterised by determining some physico-chemical parameters such as density, flash point, viscosity, free fatty acid (FFA), cloud point, pour point, saponification value and cetane number. The results obtained show that most of the parameters tested fell within the standard ranges as specified by the ASTM. D6751 and EN 14214. The transesterification of soya bean oil has significantly reduced the viscosity, acid value and flash point of the oil by 66.4%, 71.6% and 55.7% respectively. The cetane number was however on the higher range of the standard values; this is an indication that the biodiesel has a good fuel ignition property. It is therefore ascertained that the biodiesel from soya bean oil is a viable alternative to petroleum diesel, since all the quality parameters are within the standard values.