The Effect of Catalyst Type and Concentration on the Yield of Biodiesel from Jathropha/Moringa Oil Mix

Abstract

The exhaustible nature of petroleum diesel has made biodiesel an attractive alternative to diesel, but efforts at reducing its high production costs through the use of cheap poor-quality oil feedstock are not sufficient. A careful choice of catalyst concentration and type is also necessary. Binary blends of oil-feedstock and alcohol-feedstock were used to increase the efficiency of transesterification process. The effect of changing alkaline catalysts on the yield of transesterification reactions was also examined for similar and varied process conditions. This allowed the examination of the impacts of catalyst on yield with changing feedstock type and processing condition. Results of oil and alcohol blending showed that the partial use of ethanol permitted reactions to be completed in 45 minutes instead of 60- 120 minutes common to conventional ethanolysis. Yields were comparable to those of methanolysis. Ester yield increased with increase in the concentration of KOH and CaO catalysts within the 0.5-2.5 w/w% range.