Characteristics of Jatropha Oil and Prospective for its Valorization as Feedstock for the Development of Biodiesel Technology in Guinea

Abstract

The continuous depletion of fossil fuel and petroleum products, their limited resources and environment concerns are a matter of concern. The tendency in energy sector represents a challenge as well as an opportunity to look for alternatives of fossil fuels for sustainable development and environmental benefits. Study of biodiesel has become a key objective in the effort towards energy self-reliance. Since Jatropha oil cannot be used in the food industry, its use as energy source becomes very attractive. Before oil extraction, 1000-seed weight of Jatropha was investigated on the point of view of temperature and rainfalls. Seeds were grounded and defatted by extraction using a Soxhlet device. The lipid fraction of Jatropha oil seed were extracted and analyzed for their chemical composition and properties. The content of fatty acid in the extracted lipid was determined by use of Gas Chromatography (GC). Oleic acid (44.7%) and Oinoleic acid (32.8%) represent the dominant fatty acids while palmitic and stearic ones were the saturated fatty acids in the Jatropha oil. The crude oil from an average sample was transformed into biodiesel by transesterification in which a primary alcohol replaces glycerol from crude oil molecules.

Temperature and pretreatment effects on the drying of different collections of Jatropha curcas L. seeds

“…Higher moisture and FFA contents (15% FFA) of Jatropha oil have resulted in the current commercial alkaline catalyst based transesterification not being suitable to be employed [29]. The acid-catalyzed transesterification of Jatropha oil is an alternative, but it is much slower than the base catalyzed one, and thus, not efficient [30]. The complicity of multistage processing involved (extraction, drying, degumming and deacidification) would also add to the production cost and thus contribute negatively to the biodiesel cost effectiveness [31].…”