Biodiesel Production By Esterification /Transesterification Of Jatropha Oil Over Sulfated Zirconia

Abstract

Transesterification of jatropha curcas oil (JCO) with high acidity (8.4%),using methanol over sulfated zirconia as heterogeneous acid catalyst was investigated. Sulfated zirconia was directly synthesized by solvent – free method (S-ZrO2) at 600°C for 5 h, and characterized by various physicochemical techniques. The surface areas and pore volume were 9.71716 m2/g and 5.20631x 10-3cm3/g respectively. This catalyst exhibits excellent activity in esterification / transesterification of (JCO). The alcoholysis conversion of JCO under optimized conditions (65°C,16 h , 1:40 MR oil to methanol and 12.5% wt of catalyst) was 92 .33%.While under subcritical methanolysis (200°C, 21 bars) was 95.6% after 1h. Generally oils containing high level of FFA cannot be directly esterified using base catalysts currently employed. Kinetic data on the transesterification reaction were achieved by conducting the reaction at various reaction times, catalyst dose and molar ratio. The experimental data was interpreted with a 1storder reaction. The reaction was represented fairly well by pseudo homogeneous 1st order reaction and the kinetic parameters were obtained. A good agreement between the experimental data and the model were observed.