Methanolysis of Jatropha curcas Oil for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

The transesterification of jatropha oil with methanol to methyl ester was carried out using KNO₃/ Al₂O₃ as a solid base catalyst. It was found that the catalyst with 35 % KNO₃ loading and calcined at 773 K showed the optimum condition. When the transesterification was carried out at 70 ºC, with a 15:1 molar ratio of methanol to jatropha oil, a reaction time of 7 h and a catalyst amount of 6 % wt, the conversion of jatropha oil was 86 %. The catalyst was also characterized with FTIR, XRD, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area, true density, particle size analyzer and SEM study.