Physio-chemical assessment of beauty leaf (Calophyllum inophyllum) as second-generation biodiesel feedstock

Recently, second-generation (non-vegetable oil) feedstocks for biodiesel production are receivingsignificant attention due to the cost and social effects connected with utilising food products for theproduction of energy products. The Beauty leaf tree (Calophyllum inophyllum) is a potential source ofnon-edible oil for producing second-generation biodiesel because of its suitability for production in an extensive variety of atmospheric condition,easy cultivation, high fruit production rate,and the high oil content in the seed. Inthisstudy,oilwasextractedfromBeautyleaftreeseedsthroughthreedifferentoilextraction methods. The important physical and chemical properties of these extracted Beauty leaf oils were experimentally analysed and compared with other commercially available vegetable oils. Biodiesel was produced using a two-stagee sterification process combining of an acidc atalysed pre-esterification process and an alkali catalysed transesterification process. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles and important physicochemical properties were experimentally measured and estimated using equations based on the FAME analysis. The quality of Beauty leaf biodiesels was assessed and compared with commercially available biodiesels through multivariate data analysis using PROMETHEE-GAIA software.The results show that mechanical extraction using a screw press produces oil at a low cost, however,results in low oil yields compared with chemical oil extraction. High pressure and temperature in the extraction process increase oil extraction performance. On the contrary, this process increases the free fatty acid content in the oil. A clear difference was found in the physical properties of Beauty leaf oils, which eventually affected the oil to biodiesel conversion process. However, Beauty leaf oils methyl esters (biodiesel) were very consistent physicochemical properties and able to meet almost all indicators of biodiesel standards. Over all this study found that Beauty leaf is a suitable feedstock for producing second-generation biodiesel in commercial scale.Therefore, the findings of this study are expected to serve as the basis for further development of Beauty leaf as a feedstock for industrial scale second-generation biodiesel production.