A Study of Biodiesel Production from Crude Jatropha Oil (CJO) with High Level of Free Fatty Acids

A two step-transesterification process was adopted to produce biodiesel from crude jatropha oil in lab scale and pilot plant. The crude jatropha oil used was sourced with high different level of free fatty acids. The first sample (FFA=4.5%) was subjected to pretreatment step under reaction condition of 0.225 v/v sulfuric acid (H2SO4), 6:1 w/w methanol (MeOH) to oil mole ratio, reaction temperature of 65°C, and 180 min of reaction time. Meanwhile, the second jatropha oil sample (FFA=8%) was subjected to pretreatment process in pilot plant under reaction condition of 0.225 v/v sulfuric acid (H2SO4), 4.5:1 w/w methanol (MeOH) to oil mole ratio, reaction temperature of 65°C, and 180 min of reaction time. Moreover, the esterifies oil from both jatropha oil samples was subjected to alkaline base step using base-catalyst process parameters of 1.2 w/w potassium hydroxide (KOH), 4.5:1 w/w methanol to oil mole ratio, reaction temperature of 60°C, and 120 min of reaction time. The final biodiesel yield obtained was 82% and 90% from the first and the second jatropha oil sample respectively. The basic physiochemical properties of the jatropha methyl ester produced from both jatropha oil samples were found to be within the ASTM D6751 specified limits.