Jatropha oil is an ideal replacement for diesel fuel, as its properties can be made close to those of diesel. Jatropha oil can be converted into biodiesel using methods, including pyrolysis, dilution, micro-emulsification and transesterification. This article will focus on the transesterification, which is simple, can be adopted at farm level, and only takes about six hours to produce biodiesel.
Extract oil from Jatropha seeds using a mechanical press or electric. Among the commonly used is simply presses the Bielenberg ram press, which yields about three liters of oil per 12 kg of seeds. Other means are expeller oil and modern marketing methods that use aqueous enzymatic treatment.
Heat the oil in the absence of air at about 60 degrees Celsius. Prepare alkaline methanol by dissolving 10 grams of sodium hydroxide pellets in 200 ml of methanol per kilogram of oil.
Add the hot alkaline methanol to oil and stir the mixture continuously for five minutes. This process is called to extract the most reactive and the oil is esterified fatty acids and methyl esters.
Keep the mixture of glycerol to settle for four hours. Glycerol settles to the bottom and biodiesel will remain at the top. Decant the biodiesel from the top.
Washing biodiesel with hot water three times to remove impurities such as sodium and excess methanol by dissolving them. Mix warm water with biodiesel in a container with light blows of a plastic strip to stir the mixture. After each wash, allow the water to settle for about five minutes. Each time, decant the biodiesel from the top. At the last wash, allow the biodiesel to settle for 15 minutes before decanting.
Heat the biodiesel decanted for five to 10 minutes to remove traces of residual moisture so that biodiesel is seems almost transparent. Biodiesel is ready and can be stored in containers.
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