Production of Biodiesel from Neem Seed Oil Using Al2o3 and Zno as Catalyst

Student: Abdulrasheed Usman (Project, 2025)
Department of Pure Chemistry
Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, Sokoto State

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative and environmental friendly source of energy, originated by the use of fossil fuels and leads to notable growing demand from the last few decades. As biodiesel are usually acquired from renewable source like vegetable and animal oils, for example coconut oil is extracted from the coconut and then characterized for further usage. The aims and objectives of this research projectis to investigate the production of biodiesel from neem seed oilusing Al2O3 and ZnO as catalyst and also to characterize the parameters that affects biodiesel performance. The biodiesel was produced using trans-estherification process and relevant physicochemical parameters were carried out on the neem oil and it’s biodiesel and comparison made with ASTM standard. The seed produced a yield of 20% oil and 77.7% biodiesel respectively. All the physicochemical parameters are within the approved American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) of biodiesel specification except the acid value, density and free fatty acid. Neem seed hold good potential for biodiesel production.

Keywords
production biodiesel Al2o3 catalyst
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