Direct conversion of apricot seeds into biodiesel

Area of Science:

• Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy
• Biomass Conversion Technologies
• Renewable Fuels

Background:

• Edible lipid utilization for biodiesel is unsustainable and ethically questionable.
• Conventional acid/base-catalyzed biodiesel production requires prior lipid extraction and faces technical reliability issues.
• There is a need for efficient biodiesel production from inedible resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the non-catalytic transesterification of oil-bearing biomass for biodiesel production.
• To evaluate apricot seeds as a model inedible feedstock.
• To compare non-catalytic conversion with traditional alkali-catalyzed methods.

Main Methods:

• Non-catalytic transesterification of apricot seed oil at high temperatures (360°C) for short durations (1 min).
• Direct non-catalytic conversion of apricot seeds into biodiesel.
• Comparison with alkali-catalyzed transesterification of apricot seed oil at lower temperatures (63°C) for longer durations (60 min).

Main Results:

• Non-catalytic transesterification of apricot seed oil yielded 98.28 wt% biodiesel.
• Direct conversion of apricot seeds yielded 43.06 wt% biodiesel, indicating 97.20 wt% lipid conversion.
• Alkali-catalyzed transesterification yielded 91.84 wt% biodiesel under different conditions.

Conclusions:

• Non-catalytic transesterification is a highly efficient and rapid method for biodiesel production from apricot seeds.
• This approach bypasses the need for lipid extraction, simplifying the process.
• Non-catalytic conversion offers a technically reliable and sustainable alternative for biodiesel generation from inedible biomass.