The production of methyl ester from industrial grade hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) seed oil: a perspective of Turkey - the optimization study using the Taguchi method

Bioenergy and its varieties, which have been frequently mentioned in the twenty-first century on the basis of energy and respect to the environment, are becoming issues that need to be studied much more in terms of biodiesel fuel with uncertainties in oil prices and emission restrictions. Biodiesel production, especially from inedible oil sources, has not caused a shortage of raw material in the food stock. Besides that, the availability and quantity of feedstock to be produced biodiesel have to be another criterion for countries. In this context, optimization of transesterification process parameters from industrial-grade hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) seed oil has been investigated in the present research using the Taguchi approach for the first time. Initially, catalyst concentration (0.6-1.2 wt. %), molar ratio of methanol to oil (6:1-12:1), reaction temperature (30-60 degrees C), and experimental duration (60-120 min) were taken into consideration to be as remarkable factors affecting the yield of methyl ester. The transesterification process was performed in the aforementioned reaction parameters by implementing an L9 orthogonal design matrix of the Taguchi technique. Besides that, the combination obtained using analysis of variance (ANOVA) on account of estimating the influencing process parameters was revealed thanks to the validation experiments. In conclusion, the maximum biodiesel yield was found to be 96.87% under the optimum reaction conditions given as follows: KOH loading of 0.9 wt. %, molar ratio of the methanol to oil of 12:1, reaction temperature of 45 degrees C, and reaction duration of 120 min. Among the optimized four variables, the highest contribution factor was calculated to be 47.08% with methanol:oil molar ratio, 35.02% with KOH loading, 10.56% with reaction temperature, and 7.34% with reaction duration. The fuel characteristics for synthesized hempseed methyl ester at the above-stated optimal reaction conditions were observed to be within the range of EN 14,214 global biodiesel specifications. It could be highlighted that industrial-grade hempseed oil can be evaluated as a potential and sustainable raw material for the production of biodiesel in near future.

Automated summary

Bioenergy, especially biodiesel, is considered a potential and sustainable raw material for future production due to uncertainties in oil prices and emission restrictions. In this research, the optimization of transesterification process parameters from industrial-grade hemp seed oil was investigated using the Taguchi method, resulting in finding the maximum biodiesel yield under the optimum reaction conditions.