Parametric Studies of Alcoholysis of Jatropha Curcas Oil

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable clean fuel which results from chemical transformation of different vegetable oil, animal fats, waste cooking oil and algae through a process known as alcoholysis (transesterification). This paper presents the results of the investigation of reaction temperature, mole ratio of alcohol to oil, catalyst concentration, and time on transesterification of Jatropha curcas oil using a 2x4 full factorial design. It further provides an explicit account on the optimum condition for the reaction of methanol and Jatropha curcas oil using potassium hydroxide as a homogeneous catalyst in a batch reactor. The oil being crude was pretreated with 1% H2SO4 for 2hrs to reduce the high FFA to tolerable level for transesterification. The results shows that catalyst concentration was the most prominent variable affecting the biodiesel yield and purity, an optimum biodiesel yield and purity of 98% (v/v) was obtained at a reaction temperature of 45 C for the reaction with 1 wt% KOH catalyst concentration, mole ratio of 6:1 in 60 minutes. The biodiesel properties produced compared well with ASTM standard for biodiesel.