Biodiesel production from strawberry pomace seed oil

Abstract

Strawberry pomace is the beverage industry waste and should be utilized as circular economy feedstock, animal feed, or a fertilizer following environmental regulations. This work aimed to characterize and implement strawberry pomace oil in the biodiesel industry. Oil was extracted from the strawberry seed by a maceration method for physicochemical characterization. Two seed/solvent ratios were used to achieve the maximum oil yield. The yield of strawberry seed oil by n-hexane extraction at the seed/solvent ratio of 1:3 was 0.11 g/g. Extracted strawberry oil was used for biodiesel production by a two-step process that included the acid (H 2 SO 4)-catalyzed pre-esterification of strawberry oil, followed by the base (KOH)-catalyzed transesterification of the pre-esterified strawberry oil. Further, the methanolysis ensured a biodiesel content of 97.2% in 30 min. However, the low yield of this technology's final product and physicochemical characterization showed that strawberry oil should be used in a mixture with other oils (hybrid oil) for biodiesel production, or in the cosmetics and food industry.