Alcoholysis of Carica Papaya Seed Oil to Diesel Like Fuel

Abstract

Extensive efforts were made in this study to extract oil from Carica papaya seeds (an untapped resource), trans-esterify the extracted oil and check for the fuel properties of the produced pawpaw seed oil based biodiesel. Normal hexane was used as solvent for the extraction. 63.05g of oil was extracted from 275g of pawpaw seeds to give oil yield of 22.93%. Lyed methanol in  60% excess was reacted with the heated oil with thorough agitation for some minutes. Fuel properties such as cloud point, API gravity, cetane number, diesel index etc were found not only to be competitive with biodiesel made from other oils but also meet some of the requirements of the ASTM Standards (American Standard for Testing and Methods ) against which biodiesel must be measured and therefore fits to be used as a blend with fossil fuel diesel in trucks and other machineries. This paper however intends to draw the attention of researchers and policy makers through thorough experimentation on a forgotten resource (pawpaw seed oil) and its suitability as a major feedstock for biodiesel production so as to  conserve the fossil fuel and further create a balance between food security and energy security