Comparison of oil refining and biodiesel production process between screw press and n-hexane techniques from beauty leaf feedstock

The Beauty Leaf Tree (Callophylum inophyllum) is regarded as an alternative source of energy to produce 2nd generation biodiesel due to its potentiality as well as high oil yield content in the seed kernels. The treating process is indispensable during the biodiesel production process because it can augment the yield as well as quality of the product. Oil extracted from both mechanical screw press and solvent extraction using n-hexane was refined. Five replications each of 25 gm of crude oil for screw press and five replications each of 25 gm of crude oil for n-hexane were selected for refining as well as biodiesel conversion processes. The oil refining processes consists of degumming, neutralization as well as dewaxing. The degumming, neutralization and dewaxing processes were performed to remove all the gums (phosphorous-based compounds), free fatty acids, and waxes from the fresh crude oil before the biodiesel conversion process carried out, respectively. The results indicated that up to 73% and 81% of mass conversion efficiency of the refined oil in the screw press and n-hexane refining processes were obtained, respectively. It was also found that up to 88% and 90% of biodiesel were yielded in terms of mass conversion efficiency in the transesterification process for the screw press and n-hexane techniques, respectively. While the entire processes (refining and transesterification) were considered, the conversion of beauty leaf tree (BLT) refined oil into biodiesel was yielded up to 65% and 73% of mass conversion efficiency for the screw press and n-hexane techniques, respectively. Physico-chemical properties of crude and refined oil, and biodiesel were characterized according to the ASTM standards. Overall, BLT has the potential to contribute as an alternative energy source because of high mass conversion efficiency. © 2016 Author(s)