In situ acid catalysed transesterification of biodiesel production from Sterculia foetida oil and seed

The quantity of fossil fuel is declining year by year, and the pollutant also released to the environment which insist on the exploration of new alternative fuel. Biodiesel from non-edible seeds is of primary concern for increasing prices of crude oil and thereof preventing greenhouse gas emissions. In the present study, the production of biodiesel by In-situ acid catalyzed transesterification from Sterculia foetida oil and seeds were reported. GC-FID characterization of oil sample revealed the presence of long-chain fatty acids with a higher proportion of sterculic acid (32%). The operating parameters in acid transesterification process viz., the weight of the oil and biomass, solvent volume, acid volume, temperature and time were optimized using Placket-Burman design. The maximum biodiesel yield obtained for sterculia oil and seeds were 91.58% and 95.91% exhibiting volume of oil being the critical factor based on Plackett-Burman design. One-way ANOVA analysis showed that chosen parameters were statistically significant (P < .05) except for temperature. FT-IR analysis confirms the presence of biodiesel (1741 cm–1) obtained from the transesterification process.