Acid-catalyzed in situ transesterification of Jatropha curcas L. using ethanol as solvent
Date
3-2010
Degree
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering
College
College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)
Adviser/Committee Chair
Rex B. Demafelis
Committee Member
John Meynard M. Tengco, Erwin C. Escobar
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Abstract
Production of ethyl ester from Jatropha curcas L. was done by employing acid-catalyzed in situ transesterification using absolute ethanol as solvent and concentrated sulfuric acid as catalyst. Four factors such as oil to ethanol molar ratio, oil to sulfuric acid ratio, temperature and reaction time were varied to investigate their effect on the mass yield and purity of ethyl ester. Design Expert 8.0.1 was used to generate 28 design points. A 500 mL flat bottom flask under reflux conditions was used as the reactor. Recovered biodiesel layer was weighed and analyzed by Thin Layer Chromatography. The iodine-stained spots were photographed and analyzed using Quantiscan to calculate for percent purity. It was noted that temperature has the most significant effect on the purity and mass yield. Increasing the amount of ethanol and reaction time increased purity. Based on initial inspection, no clear trend can be observed on the effect of the increasing amount of sulfuric acid (decreasing oil to sulfuric acid ratio) on the purity. A model for purity was generated using Design Expert 8.0.1. The R-squared value of 0.458724 implied that the generated linear model for purity weakly simulated the response data. Generally, no significant trend was observed from the percent mass yield and percent purity data as amount of sulfuric acid is increased. This may be accounted mainly for the large amount of sulfuric acid that was used and secondly for the inconsistency of the recovery method that was employed. Therefore it was recommended that further explorations on the acid catalyzed in situ transesterification of Jatropha curcas L. be done while taking into considerations the results and weaknesses of this study.
Language
English
Location
UPLB College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology
Call Number
LG 993 2010 E62 L37
Recommended Citation
Laquindanum, Reinabelle F., "Acid-catalyzed in situ transesterification of Jatropha curcas L. using ethanol as solvent" (2010). Undergraduate Theses. 610.
https://www.ukdr.uplb.edu.ph/etd-undergrad/610
Document Type
Thesis
