Biodiesel Production by Transesterification Of Jatropha Curcas Oil using Homogeneous Acid Catalyst

Abstract

Biodiesel has become more attractive recently because of its environmental benefits and the fact that it is made from renewable resources. Biodiesel is one of the new possible substitutes of regular fuel for engines. The main reaction involved is the transesterification of triglycerides into esters. The production of biodiesel by transesterification process employing alkali catalyst has been industrially accepted for its high conversion and reaction rates. Recently, acidic and enzymatic (biocatalyst) transesterification has attracted much attention for biodiesel production as it produces high purity product and uses various feed stocks. In this work, transesterification reaction via homogeneous acid catalytic was studied. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) was used as homogeneous acid catalyst. Here the raw materials used were jatropha oil and methanol as an alcohol in the reaction and the effects of the main variables involved in the process, reaction temperature, amount of catalyst, the molar ratio alcohol/oil, speed of agitation were analyzed. It was found that 5% (v/v) acid catalyst, 5 hr reaction time, 6:1 methanol to oil ratio, reaction temperature 60o C and agitation speed 600 rpm are the optimum parameters for reaching higher conversion of jatropha oil to biodiesel. The results for quality check shows that the properties of blend (B20) and biodiesel (B100) meet the ASTM standards.