Can beeswax (palmitate-1-triacontanol) be used in biodiesel production?



Answer to this question depends entirely on what beeswax is chemically composed of and how it is related to the triglyceride (TAG) is an ingredient in making biodiesel. After reading this, you will understand the possibilities of beeswax as raw material in biodiesel production. The world at large is in war with the climate change many people are coming up with various ways to protect our surrounding. The main contributor of climate change is the use of petroleum products and it is necessary for chemists or scientists to look for other alternative cheaper clean green energy. 

What is beeswax?
 It is a wax secreted by bees to make honeycombs and usually used to make wood polishes and candles. It is made of a fatty acid esterified to alcohol (fatty acid and alcohol are linked through ester bond). The fatty acid is palmitic acid (a sixteen carbon atoms acid) while the alcohol is triacontanol (30 carbon atoms). 

What is biodiesel?
Biodiesel is monoalkyl esters of fatty acids which at the moment is produced from vegetable oils in the presence of catalysts (acid or base). It is a liquid of different color and immiscible with water. Biodiesel is classified according to its purity, ranging from 100% to 5% and is designated by letter “B” in front of its percentage in the solution. For example; 100%, 20%, 5% are designated as B100, B20 and B5 respectively. Biodiesel poses the following characteristics; 
(i) It has a flash point ranging from 182˚C to 338˚C. Flash point is the lowest temperature at which volatile materials vaporize to form a mixture of ignitable air. 
(ii) It has low vapor pressure of 2mmHg.vapor pressure is the pressure that comes in existence due to evaporation liquid (biodiesel) above that liquid (biodiesel) in a closed container. 
(iii) It has specific density from 0.86 to 0.90. Specific density is the ratio density of substance (in this case, it is biodiesel) to the density of reference substance.
(iv) Biodiesel has vapor density greater than one (1). Vapor density is the density of certain gas to density of hydrogen at the same temperature and pressure. 
(v) Flammability- the capability of a substance to ignite starting combustion/fire. Biodiesel is less hazardous in terms of flammability.  
(vi) Average energy density- this the average quantity of energy kept in certain space/region or system per unit mass or volume. Biodiesel has average energy density of 33.3 to 35.7MJ per kilogram of biodiesel .This means one (1) kilogram of biodiesel stores 33.3 to 35.7MJ and this depends with the chemical composition of the oils/fats from which biodiesel is manufactured. 

Overview of reaction mechanism of preparation of biodiesel 
Biodiesel is manufactured from oils/fats through transestrification process. In this process, alcohol is deprotonated with base/acid to make stronger nucleophile, which easily attacks carbonyl group of triglyceride (TAG). For example, base is dissolved either in methanol or ethanol where it dissociates to hydroxide ion (-OH), which now abstract hydrogen ion (+H) from alcohol (methanol or ethanol) making it stronger nucleophile as shown below;  
NaOH + CH3CH2OH  
Na+ + H2O + CH3CH2O

Nucleophile (CH3CH2O-) attacks TAG (triglyceride), and reaction proceeds through nucleophile substitution reaction as outlined below; 







Possibility of extraction of biodiesel from Beeswax 
As can be seen in the reaction and relationship between triglyceride and palmitate-1-triacontanol, in that in triglyceride, three fatty acids are attached to carbon number one, two and three of glycerol respectively. In case of beewax, palmitate acid (fatty acid) is attached to triacontanol at carbon position number one. In the process of tranesterification, glycerol is liberated giving a chance for alkyl chain of alcohol (methanol or ethanol) to associate with the fatty acid chain thus forming fatty acid ester (monoalkyl ester of fatty acid or biodiesel). This reaction can also occur between triacontanol (beeswax) with nucleophile (CH3CH2O- OR CH3O-) through nucleophile substitution process as in the case of triglyceride. 
Since beeswax has high melting point, the biodiesel produced from it, will solidify at room temperature hence there is need for mixing it with other materials with lower melting points(liquid fuels) for it to be  applied in domestic heating or to be used in some special car engines. 
NB: The hypothesis that beeswax can be used in making biodiesel can be held true if the process is tried and this will open avenues for alternative cheaper clean energy in many countries. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to write a Forensic Case Study: Murder of Junko Furuta

Image
Photo of Junko Furuta  For one to score high marks in a Forensic Case Study, one must  adhere to the following: Background of the case: This section contains details about the crime. It includes; the reasons for committing the offense, the conditions which the crime was committed, the circumstances of the crime scene and clear identification of the suspect(s) and the victim(s). One should ensure that the information in this part gives a precise idea of what the case is all about.   Pick and Write an article on Iwriter Website Evidence: This encompasses the piece of evidence found at the crime scene. The evidence should be described in details, that is, ways in which the evidence was collected, processed and preserved.   Forensic Tests: The tests should be two or more that were used to analyze the evidence. The science or theory of instrumentation used must be described fully.   Results: This consists of a detailed explanation of the forensic ...
Read more

Roles of Sodium Carbonate when Extracting Caffeine from Tea Leaves

Image
A student failed to add sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) when extracting caffeine from tea leaves with hot water. Though, high yield of caffeine was produced. The crystals melted at temperatures between 202  and 214 degree  Celsius. Explain. This happened because sodium carbonate did not interfere with the caffeine content of the tea leaves. Sodium carbonate (which is a base) deprotonates the phenolic hydroxyl group (-OH) (acidic) of tannins rendering them anionic. Hence, making them highly soluble in water, but parsimoniously soluble in methylene chloride. So, if sodium carbonate is not added when extracting caffeine with hot water, the extracted caffeine would also contain tannins. Additionally, sodium carbonate is added during the extraction to keep caffeine (an alkaloid which is an organic base)  in a free base form. It prevents caffeine from reacting with available acid available, which may lead to the formation cation. It reacts with a phenolic h...
Read more

Arrhenius equation: Increasing temperature increases the rate reaction

Image
The rate of reaction of a particular reaction often increases as one increase the temperature. However, how can this belief be proved using Arrhenius equation? According to the Arrhenius equation, the rate constant (k) is obtained by the ratio of Ea to RT, in which Ea denotes required energy while RT is the available thermal energy. The Arrhenius Equation is given by: k=Ae - (Ea/RT) When Ea is larger, it results in slower reactions. On the other hand, when RT is large, it leads to faster rate of reaction. Larger Ea gives smaller rate constant k, but larger RT produces larger rate constant (k). Larger rate constant increases the rate of reactions.  By using Arrhenius equation, one can easily see that when the temperature is increased, the rate constant will also increase. Let us consider these two scenarios. In the first scenario, Ea=120,000 Joules/mole, R=8.31 mol -1 K -1 , and K=373K.In the second scenario, Ea=120,000Joules/mole, R=8.31 mol -1 K -1 , and K...
Read more