Biodiesel production from Norouzak (Salvia lerifolia) seeds as an indigenous source of bio fuel in Iran using ultrasound

Population growth with increased demand for fossil fuels and also significant increases in air pollution has confirmed necessity of using alternative fuels such as biodiesel. In this paper, Norouzak (Salvia lerifolia) seed oil is introduced as an indigenous source of biodiesel production in Iran. The seeds were collected from desert area of South Khorasan province Northeastern-Iran. In this regards, kinematic and dynamic viscosity, density, amount of free fatty acids, soap value, acid value and water content of the Noruzak oil are measured which are 28.435 (mP s), 31.433 (mm(2)/s), 0.9046 (g/cm(2)), 0.71%, 160.25 (mg/1 g), 1.4139 (mg) and 0/3% respectively. Also, fatty acid methyl esters C-16:0, C-16:1, C-18:0, C-18:1, C-18:1c, C-18:2, C-18:2c, C-18:3, C-20, C-20:1, C-22, C-22:1, C-24, C-24:1 are known by Gas Chromatography (GC) and BF3 method which results shows C-18:2 (40.8%) and C-18:1 (24) have the highest proportion of methyl ester in this oil. Norouzak biodiesel was obtained by basic trans-esterification method using ultrasounds device as a new sustainable and environmentally-friendly green technique under ultrasonic amplitude of 60% and 9 min at 45 degrees C, with methanol ratio of 1:5, 1:6, 1:7 and 1% potassium hydroxide as catalyst. The results showed that there is maximum performance of methyl ester production (97.60) with methanol molar ratio of 1:6 which shows significant improvement in the bio fuel production yield using ultrasound technology under the operating conditions, then, according to the EN 14124 standard, the quality of biodiesel such as flash point, oxidation stability at 110 degrees C, density at 15 degrees C, kinematic viscosity at 40 degrees C, acid value and water content were determined and the values are 175.2 (degrees C), 6.54 (h), 883.675 (kg/m(3)), 0.5 (mg KOH/1 gOil) and 8/38 (mg/kg) respectively. Since the Norouzak biodiesel characteristics are complied with the EN 14214 standard, therefore Norouzak biodiesel can reliably be used in compression ignition engines. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.