Yucca aloifolia Seed Oil as a Potential Feedstock for
Biodiesel Production
Nehdi I.A., Sbihi M.H., Mokbli S., Rashid U., Al-Resayes, S.I. 
King Saud University, College of Science, Chemistry Department, Riyadh 1145, Saudi Arabia
Tunis El Manar University, College of Science, Chemistry Department, Tunis 2092, Tunisia
Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Yucca aloifolia Linn (Y. aloifolia) is a drought-resistant arid land plant that grows in most soil types. In this work, Y. aloifolia seed oil (YAO) was evaluated for the first time as a potential biodiesel feedstock, which contains 16.23% oil (w/w) whereas the acidity of the oil was 11%. Two step processes i.e. acid-catalyzed esterification to reduce the acid value of YAO and then standard base-catalyzed transesterification procedure were used to synthesis the Y. aloifolia methyl esters (Yame) at optimization conditions. YAO has a high content of linoleic acid (70.77 %) followed by oleic acid (12%), and palmitic acid (8.59%). The fuel properties of biodiesel derived from YAO including density, iodine value, kinematic viscosity, cetane number, flash point, pour point, cloud point, and gross heating value were evaluated and compared with the limits of ASTM D6751 standards. The comparison showed that the biodiesel obtained from Y. aloifolia oil could be used as an alternative fuel for diesel engines.