Effect of wastewater irrigation on biodiesel quality and productivity from castor and sunflower oil seeds

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2013.01.050

Renewable Energy

Volume 57, September 2013, Pages 211-215

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2013.01.050 Get rights and content

Abstract

Since biofuels are capturing a significant share in the energy consumption pattern, serious concerns have been declared regarding the impacts of biofuel production on environmental quality. One environmental aspect that has gained attention, is the significant water consumption for cultivations of biofuel crops and it is strictly related to the water scarcity encountered in many regions as a result of climate change, so alternative water sources such as wastewater can be exploited. The purpose of this paper is to study the use of wastewater as irrigation feedstock for cultivations of sunflower and castor crops and to track the effect of critical parameters on oil and biodiesel quality. Parameters such as oil yield, acid value, density and viscosity were measured and it was observed that wastewater irrigation can have a positive impact on oil's quality for biodiesel production.

Highlights

► We studied the impact of irrigation water and cultivated species on the biofuel quality. ► It was found that the wastewater irrigation improves critical factors for biodiesel synthesis. ► The municipal wastewater could serve as primary irrigation feedstock for energy crops.

Introduction

Long term environmental and economical concerns have triggered a transition to more sustainable energy patterns. Lately, biomass and biofuels have already gained a substantial share of current energy consumption. The European 2009/28/EC (Renewable Energy) Directive has set a 10% mandatory target for biofuel consumption till 2020.

From an environmental viewpoint, ensuring sustainable biodiesel production requires exploiting biomass residues and minimizing life cycle environmental impacts of energy crops [1], [2], [3], [4]. Therefore, developing innovative cultivation systems and exploiting waste resources is a crucial step towards achieving long term biofuel viability.

Water scarcity not only threatens the biomass production capacity, but also stresses the environmental and economic viability of local societies. Due to climate change, it is expected to get worse, while, nowadays, about 86% of current water use is dedicated to irrigation needs for agricultural cultivations [5]. Additionally intensifying bioenergy use will stress water resources, worsen local and regional water shortages and affect water quality [6], [7].

There are limited studies on the use of wastewater for biodiesel production and the effect of wastewater irrigation on biodiesel properties. In Egypt, Jatropha pilot cultivation showed that primary treated municipal wastewater can be used for irrigation [8].

In this paper were investigated the extraction and transformation of sunflower and castor oil to biodiesel obtained from freshwater and wastewater irrigated cultivations. Additionally the indicative quality characteristics of each fuel were measured in order to track the effect of irrigation water quality on the biofuel properties and on the biofuel production potential.

Section snippets

Materials

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and castor (Ricinus communis) seeds were annually collected on a 3-year period (2007, 2008, 2009) from a slow rate (SR) pilot cultivation for urban wastewater treatment in Heraklion wastewater treatment plant in Crete, Greece. The SR system that was constructed for the needs of the experiment was of Type 2, i.e. just enough water was applied to satisfy the total irrigation requirements of the crops that were grown in order to optimize the water reuse potential.

The

Average oil yield

The grain yield of the each plant species as well as the comparison regarding the seed production between the two water treatments are presented in Table 5 [13].

Typical oil yields for castor bean and sunflower are 1.100–1.800 kg oil/ha [14] and 450 kg/ha [15] respectively. However, higher yields have been reported in the past; Koutroubas et al. [16], in a study conducted in Greece, reported oil yields for Ricinus communis of 1.600 up to 2.500 kg/ha, depending on the plant genotype of each

Conclusions

Concerning the oil yield, the results were in consistency with those in previous studies for Ricinus communis but relatively higher for Helianthus annus, probably due to the existing soil-climatic conditions.

Concerning biodiesel oil acidity and viscosity, critical factors for biodiesel synthesis, were influenced by the variation in water quality at the current experimental conditions, and seem to be improved (decreased) when wastewater is used for irrigation. Especially the significant

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Effect of wastewater irrigation on biodiesel quality and productivity from castor and sunflower oil seeds

Abstract

Highlights

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials

Average oil yield

Conclusions

Physics and Chemistry of the Earth

Journal of Cleaner Production

Journal of Cleaner Production

Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy

Industrial Crops and Products

Biomass and Bioenergy

European Journal of Agronomy

Bioresource Technology

Renewable Energy

Chemical Engineering Research and Design