Abstract— Biodiesel, the name popularly given to fatty acid alkyl esters, has become an attractive option for the replacement of petroleum diesel (‘petrodiesel’). Biodiesel is biodegradable, generally non-toxic and has superior lubricity to petrodiesel. Dried melon seeds (Citrullus colocynthis L.) of the family Cucurbitaceae were investigated for nutritional quality and the oil seed characteristics. These melon seeds, on a dry weight basis, consisted of 52.3% of testa and 47.7% of kernel. The moisture content in melon seeds was 54.5% and the mineral constituents were also determined. The oil content of seeds was very high, ranging from 22.1-53.5%, due to the presence of the hulls, 22% from the seeds and 53% of the kernel, and also the crude protein content was so high as the 21.8% of the seeds. Oil from Melon seed was extracted using methanol and converted to biodiesel by sodium methoxide catalyst at thereaction temperature of 600c or the duration of one hour. This process is called Transesterification. The fuel properties of the melon seed biodiesel compared with the conventional petrol diesel showed that biodiesel from melon seed oil could be used alone or in blends with petrol- diesel to power compression diesel engines.

Index Terms— Petrodiesel, Cucurbitaceae, Melon seed, Sodium methoxide catalyst, Transesterification

Cite: S Sri Krishna, M Uma Mahesh Babu, M.Yaswanth Raja, " Melon Seed Oil as Bio Fuel," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 372-379, April 2014.