Application of green solvent for biodiesel production from sesame oil

The use of abundant biosources for biodiesel production has attracted the attention of various academicians, as well as the industrial communities. This work provides an alternative biodiesel-manufacturing process that uses green chemistry principles in the form of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to eliminate use of hazardous chemicals. Three different types of DES mixtures, glycerol-based (DES 1), urea-based (DES 2) and oxalic-acid-based (DES 3), were used with sesame oil. The laboratory-scale results showed that DES 1 and DES 2 were more effective for improving the yield of fatty acid methyl esters. Furthermore, a molar ratio of 6:1 and a contact time of 60 min proved to be optimum conditions. It was possible to get around 12% higher yield compared with the non-DES process under optimum conditions, suggesting that DESs can be used effectively as a co-solvent. The properties of purified biodiesel met the ASTM D 6751-19 standards.