Relationship between fatty acid composition and biodiesel quality for nine commercial palm oils

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel consisting of alkyl esters of fatty acids from vegetable oils or animal fats. The fatty acid compositions in the oils used as feedstock can influence quality of the biodiesel. In the present study, oil content and fatty acid composition of mesocarp and kernel oil were examined from nine commercial oil palm Elaeis guineensis cultivars. Saponification number, iodine value and cetane number were calculated from palm oil fatty acid methyl ester compositions. Fruits of tenera oil palm were collected from a farmer’s plantation in Dan Makham Tia District, Kanchanaburi Province in 2009. Variation between cultivars was observed in oil content and fatty acid profile of mesocarp oil rather than kernel oil. The percentage of oil in dry mesocarp ranged from 63.8% to 74.9%. The mesocarp oil composed of 41.5 - 51.6% palmitic acid, 3.58-7.10% stearic acid, 32.8-42.5% oleic acid and 9.3-13.0% linoleic acid. Likewise saponification number, iodine value and cetane number of mesocarp oil fatty acid methyl ester showed more variation among cultivars, ranging from 196.5-198.9, 45.7-54.6 and 61.8-63.6, respectively. While those of kernel oil fatty acid methyl ester showed no different among cultivars, ranging from 229-242, 13.6-16.4 and 65.3-66.5, respectively. The cetane number of fatty acid methyl ester positively correlated with contents of myristic, palmitic and stearic acids in palm oil and saponification number of biodiesel, but negatively correlated with iodine value