Hybridization of Moringa stenopetala and Azadirachta indica Seed Oil to Synthesize Biodiesel with Improved Quality

Biodiesel has been considered as biodegradable, green, cleaner, alternative, renewable and eco-friendly energy source. It can supersede petrol-diesel and help to solve challenges accompanied with energy crisis, socio-economic, environmental pollution, climate change and global warming. Hybridization of vegetable oils to synthesize biodiesel while improving fuel quality has not been studied extensively. Thus, the aim of this study was hybridization of M. stenopetala and A. indica seed oil to synthesize biodiesel and thereby improving the fuel quality. Response Surface Methodology, Box-Behnken Design, was employed in experimental design and result analysis. Oil mixing composition, reaction time and catalyst dose were selected as factors of study with three levels: low (-1), medium (0) and high (+1). Other parameters, temperature, alcohol to oil molar ratio and mixing speed were kept constant. The oil hybrid compositions were: M75N25 (75%v/v M. stenopetala oil and 25%v/v A. indica oil), M50N50 (50%v/v M. stenopetala oil and 50%v/v A. indica oil) and M25N75 (25%v/v M. stenopetala oil and 75%v/v A. indica seed oil) with their corresponding biodiesel, BM75N25, BM50N50, BM25N75 respectively. The catalyst dose of: 1, 1.5 and 2 %w/v potassium hydroxide flake; and reaction time of 20 min, 40 min and 60 min were considered as variables of study. Fifteen experimental runs were conducted with three levels for each factor. Quadratic model was developed with statistical significance, P - value < 0.0001. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and determination of coefficients were used to evaluate the model quality, where the main comparison was conducted at 5% Least Significant Difference.