Process Parameter for Biodiesel Production - Jatropha Curcas 2013-01-2890

The stepping up of biodiesel production in India depends upon the strategy to grow extract, transesterify and refine as the fuel. The bulk of the biodiesel today produced is from non edible oil seeds (Jatropha L. curcas) and the process of extracting oil from non edible oil seeds have to be improved and made more efficient. This paper deals with the idea of providing optimum process parameters for the process of expelling and transesterification for the production of biodiesel. Process parameters for expelling deals with the optimization of Moisture content of seeds, oil content of seeds, Hull fraction of seeds, preheating temperature of seeds and screw speed. Process parameters for the transesterification process deals with the molar ratio of oil and alcohol, reaction temperature, stirring speed, water quantity for washing, drying temperature and time. The aim of optimization of these process parameters is to obtain biodiesel fuel as per the required ASTM D6751 standard, where the permissible limits of Kinematic viscosity (at 40 deg C), sulphur content, water content and glycerine are 1.9-6.0 mm²/sec, 15ppm, <0.5% by mass, 0.24% by mass respectively.