A new environmental friend and commercial biodiesel from Salicornia persica Akhani: Studies of synthesis, physico chemical analysis and flame analysis

This work explains the optimized synthesis process and preparation of a novel environmental friend and commercial biodiesel from Salicornia persica Akhani (SpA) as a low-water, drought-resistant, and saltwater tolerant plant and presents the comparative results on thermal and emission characteristics due to the application of this biodiesel in a combustion system. The effects of extraction method, kind of extraction solvent (polar and non-polar solvent), extraction time (10–25 min) and ratio of Salicornia grounded seeds to solvent (0.11–0.33 g/ml) on the yield of the extraction process were studied. The ultrasonic probe method with hexane solvent at 25 min of extraction time and 0.33 g/ml solute to solvent ratio gave the maximum oil yield of 33 wt% during the experiment. Conversion of Salicornia seeds oil into biodiesel was done with methanol in the presence of the Zn0.4Ni0.6Fe2O4@SO3H magnetic nanocomposites during transesterification reaction. Also, Fourier Transform Infrared technique (FT-IR) was done to show the oil conversion into biodiesel. Having a high amount of unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) and a low amount of saturated fatty acids (SFA) resulting from Gas Chromatography analysis (GC) and high oxidative stability of Salicornia seeds oil leads to the Salicornia persica Akhani biodiesel having the lowest dynamic viscosity (3.32 mPa.s at 40 °C) compared to other conventional biodiesels including palm, sunflower and soybean. Low viscosity has an essential role in the enhancement of fuel atomization, mixing, combustion and CO emission such that compared with B20 palm oil biodiesel fuel, the use of a B20 blend of Salicornia persica Akhani in an oil burner increases the maximum flame temperature by 3.7 % and decreases the CO emission by 46.5 %.