Rapid alcoholysis of Jatropha curcas oil for biodiesel production using ultrasound irradiation

Abstract

The biodiesel synthesis through alcoholysis process of triglyceride from Jatropha curcas using different type of alcohol, such as: methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol and tert-butanol, was conducted in the presence of potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a catalyst under 35 kHz frequency ultrasound irradiation. The optimum conditions, such as: alcohol to jatropha oil molar ratio, concentration of catalyst, reaction temperature, and reaction time, were found to be 7:1 of alcohol to jatropha oil molar ratio, 0.5 % of KOH, temperature of reaction at 35 °C, within the reaction times of 15 minutes. The results obtained for the different types of alcohol were 62.77 %, 57.93 %, 51.64 %, and 46.77 % for methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, and tert-butanol, respectively.