Production and Physiochemical Characterization of Biodiesel from Nile cabbage grown in Pager River, Kitgum Municipality, Northern-Uganda

Abstract

Nile cabbage (Pistia stratiotes) represents a promising source of biodiesel which has been garnered due to good biomass yield. This study aims to determine the possibility for biodiesel production from Nile cabbage plants collected from a seasonal Pager River. The bio-oil extraction from Nile cabbage leaves was done using soxhlet apparatus. The biodiesel was produced by transesterification of lipids and characterized by GC-FID and the physio-chemical parameters of the produced biodiesel were also performed. The obtained results indicate that, Nile cabbage sample showed a yield of biodiesel (30.30±0.01) %. The biodiesel obtained possess the following fuel properties: density (880.00±0.00)Kg/m3, pH (5.70±0.00), saponification value (137.10±0.09) mg KOH/g, acid value (1.00±0.00) mg KOH/g, iodine value (63.41±0.01) mg I2/100g, flash point (120±0.00)℃, pour point (-6.20±0.03) ℃, colour (brown), moisture content (50.00±0.00)%, and ash content (0.003±0.00)%, and cetane number (49.53±0.05). The GC-FID analysis of the obtained biodiesel showed the presence of C16:0, C18:0, C18:1 and C18:2 as the major constituents of fatty acids (FAs) detected. Therefore, all physiochemical parameters were within the allowable limits, accept only acid value which was slightly higher than the standard limits issued by the American and European (ASTM D 6571:12 and EN 14214:2012) standards. Aquatic weeds are considered a global threat in the aquatic ecosystem, which invoked a lot of attention from the general public and the scientific community. Our findings showed that Nile cabbage biomass could give a significant yield of biodiesel, with desired fuel properties which will initiates a cleaner energy.