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) which 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 at 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. 


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