Fatty Acid Methyl Esters of Melon Seed Oil: Characterisation for Potential Diesel Fuel Application

Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), biodiesel, are alternative diesel fuels usually obtained from renewable sources, mainly, vegetable and animal oils through transesterification among other processes. Melon seed oil was extracted from melon seeds bought from a local market, degummed and alkali refined using standard methods. FAME of the oil was produced using methanol in the molar ration of 1:6, 1% sodium hydroxide catalyst at the reaction temperature of 60 deg C for the duration of 1h. Results obtained showed that the fatty acid methyl esters had a specific gravity of 0.8786, viscosity of 6.24 centistokes, pH of 7.23, heating value of 36.34 J/g and flash point of 148 deg C. The FAME yield was 87.35% under the reaction conditions that applied. The infrared spectra of both the refined oil and the methyl esters from it, showed peaks at 1721.3cm-1 and 1167.8cm-1 (C=O and C-O stretches large and medium absorbance's) for oils and methyl esters. Generally, the fuel properties of the FAME compared with values obtained under the same conditions for conventional petroleum diesel that was sourced from a retail outlet; suggesting that biodiesel from MSO could be used alone or in blends with petrodiesel to power compression ignition (diesel) engines.