Production of biodiesel from jatropha oil by using microwave irradiation

Abstract

Environmental issues, the growing demand for energy, political concerns, increasing crude oil prices and the medium term depletion of petroleum created the need for the development of vegetable oils as alternative fuels. Vegetable oil based fuels (bio fuels) are promising alternative fuels for diesel engines because of their environmental and strategic advantages. Biodiesel is gaining more and more importance as an attractive fuel due to the depleting fossil fuel resources. Chemically biodiesel is monoalkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable feed stock like vegetable oils and animal fats. The costs of feedstock and production process are two important factors which are particularly against large-scale biodiesel production. Jatropha curcas oil (JCO) is considered a future feedstock for biodiesel production because it is easily grown in harsh environments and is a non-edible crop that is not in demand as a food source. Microwave irradiation is one of the good methods to reduce the reaction time and get the higher yield; however, heterogeneous transesterification using a solid catalyst rather than a liquid acid or base catalyst is a more environmentally responsible way to utilize crude Jatropha oil for biodiesel production. The use of a heterogeneous catalyst also avoids neutralization and washing steps, thereby leading to a simpler and more efficient process. This project presents optimize three critical reaction parameters including catalyst concentration, microwave exit power and reaction time from the transesterification of used jatropha curcas oil (JCO) by using microwave irradiation in an attempt to reduce the production cost of biodiesel. To arrest the reaction, similar quantities of methanol to oil molar ratio (6:1) and calcium oxide as the catalyst were used. The results showed that the best yield percentage (96%) was obtained using 300W microwave exit power, 8 %(wt) CaO and 7 min. From the results obtained it was clear that free acid methyl ester (FAME) was within the standards of biodiesel and diesel fuel.