Production of Bio-Diesel from Jatropha Curcas Seed Using In-Situ Technique: Effect of Catalyst Amount and Alcohol-Seed Ratio

DAIRO, O. U. and Olayanju, T.M.A. and Amusan, Oluseyi and Olayemi, J.A. and Adeleke, A.E. (2013) Production of Bio-Diesel from Jatropha Curcas Seed Using In-Situ Technique: Effect of Catalyst Amount and Alcohol-Seed Ratio. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), 2 (8). pp. 2784-2792. ISSN 2278-0181

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Abstract

The effects of alcohol seed ratio (0.5, 1.5 & 2.0) and initial catalyst amount (0.5, 1.0 & 1.5%) on the in-situ production of biodiesel from raw Jatropha Curcas seed were studied and evaluated at a reaction temperature of 600C and reaction time of 120min using the Central Composite experimental Design. Initial catalyst amount and alcohol seed ratio were found to have significant (P<0.05) effects on the yield of biodiesel produced. Initial catalyst amount was the more important factor and had a positive influence on the yield than alcohol seed ratio which does not significantly affect the yield as a single factor. Due to formation of by-products (soaps) caused by excessive amount of catalyst and excess alcohol leading to difficult ester separation from glycerol, there was a general reduction in Jatropha Curcas ethyl-ester as levels of catalyst and alcohol seed ratio increased. A second-order quadratic model was obtained to predict the yield as a function of both factors. The model predicted well the observed data with a R 2 value of 0.985 and a non-significant Lack-of-Fit (P<0.05). The biodiesel obtained, compared favorably with the ASTM D6751-02 standard for biodiesel. Keywords: in-situ, trans-esterification, Jatropha Curcas seed, biodiesel, response surface, biomass

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