Extraction of Jatropha Curcas Non – Edible Oil

Abstract

In this work studies were carried out to produce biodiesel from crude Jatropha Curcas oil has high free fatty acid content. Due to its high free fatty acid content, the crude Jatropha Curcas oil was processed in two steps. During the first step the free fatty acid content of Crude Jatropha Oil was reduced to less than 2% in one hour at 60°C using methanol to oil molar ratio and 2%w/w of oil of H2SO4 After the reaction, the mixture was allowed to settle for two hours and the top layer of methanol-water mixture was removed. The second step was alkali catalyzed Transesterification using methanol to oil molar ratio of 1:5 and the catalyst to oil ratio of 0.55% w/w to produce biodiesel from the product of the first step at 60°C.The maximum yield of biodiesel was 93% v/v of Crude Jatropha Oil which was more than the biodiesel yield (53%) from the one step catalytic Transesterification.