The purpose of this research is to develop a process for avocado oil production for biodiesel. Vegetable oils are triglycerides extracted from plants. Some of these oils have been part of human culture for millennia. Avocado oil is an edible oil pressed from the fruit of the Persea americana (avocado). Biodiesel (BD) can be produce from avocado oil, without relying on fossil fuel reducing the problem of contamination by CO2, since the BD works within a biological cycle. The objectives are develop a process for BD production from avocado oil of transesterification and determine the average yield (% n) of production, density and viscosity for every batch. BD is a synthetic biofuel that can be produce from animal fats and natural lipids such as vegetable oil. The procedure of BD preparation consists in use avocado oil and the sodium methoxide mixture in an agitator reactor, maintaining the temperature at 48 degreC and 300 rpm during 45 minutes. By operation of decantation, the BD was separate from the glycerin then this BD was subjected to various washing steps with distilled water to remove any impurities. As results, the average %n for the avocado oil was 80.52%. The average viscosity of biodiesel from avocado oil was 5.04 g/cm-s. The range of industrial diesel is 3 to 64 g/cm-s. The average density of biodiesel from avocado 0.87 g/ml. The density of industrial diesel is 0.87g/ml and the density of gasoline is 0.68g/ml. The BD produce was tasted in a pickup Ford 250 and a digger owned by the University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo, both with an excellent performance.

Production of avocado oil for biodiesel

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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