Abstract

This study is aimed at identifying the functional group of chemical compounds, then quantifying their active components and analyze the chemical transformations from Canarium Schweinfurthii (CS) crude oil to its biodiesel as evaluated using FTIR and GCMS techniques. The CS seed kernels were collected from the mature plants at Kagoro, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The oil from the seed kernels was extracted using mechanical expellers press method. Alkaline-catalysed transesterification process was used to convert other triacylglyceride to the desired fatty acid alkyl ester (FAAE). Agilent technologies FTIR Spectrophotometer using potassium bromide disc method, scanning range at 650 to 4000 cm-1 was used to record the infrared spectrum of the samples. For the GCMS, 1µL oil were injected into a gas chromatography (GCMS-QO2010 Shimadzu Japan) fitted with a Mass Spectrometer (MS) detector and a fused silica column, packed with Elite-5MS (5% biphenyl 95% dimethylpolysiloxane, 30m × 0.25mm ID × 250μm df). The unknown spectrum from the GCMS result were matched with known compounds of National Institute Standard and Technology library (NIST05s) as reference for identification. Consequently, the =C-H functional group in the crude oil was not affected by the transesterification reaction forming the biodiesel. However, it showed strong stretch at 1707cm-1 in the crude oil due to C=O carboxylic group shifted to 1740cm-1 in the biodiesel. The GCMS of the crude oil showed 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z)- with 56.71% area, while 9-Octadecenoic acid methyl ester with 22.23% area and 16-Octadecenoic acid methyl ester with 20.55% area were found in the biodiesel.