Scholarly Journal of Engineering Research Vol. x(x), pp. xxx-xxx September, 2013
Available online at http:// www.scholarly-journals.com/SJER
ISSN 2276-8955 © 2013 Scholarly-Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Comparing the Yields of Biodiesel of Palm Oil and
Jatropha curcas Seed Oil Using Bulk CaO Catalyst
1Ibrahim
H*., 1Chika E., 1Hayatudeen A., 1Nwakuba C.D.U. 1Olabimtan O. 2Aminu A. 3Ibrahim
M.A.
1Petrochemical
Division, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Zaria, Nigeria.
Engineering Department. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
3Turkish-Nigerian University, Abuja, Nigeria.
2Chemical
Accepted 11 September, 2013
Biodiesel is a renewable, biodegradable and environmental benign liquid fuel capable of replacing fossil
diesel. In search of raw materials and methods for production of biodiesel at relatively low cost for it to
be affordable, palm oil and Jatrpha curcas oil were transesterified with bulk Calcium oxide catalyst at
the same reaction conditions of temperature, time, mole ratio and catalyst loading. At 600C and 90
minutes of reaction time, the yields of 86.41% and 99.08% for palm oil and Jatropha curcas oil were
obtained respectively. The results obtained at 650C and 75 minutes were 89.41% and 96.93% for palm oil
and Jatropha carcass oil respectively. For all the reactions the mole ratio of methanol to oil was 5.5:1
and the quantity of catalyst used was 1.5% w/w of oil. Therefore, Jatropha oil though not edible showed
to have higher yield under the same reaction condition. The use of Jatropha oil and calcium oxide
catalyst will make better alternative materials for biodiesel production in Nigeria as calcium carbonate is
chiefly abundant in the Nigeria.
Key words: palm oil, jatropha oil, calcium oxide, catalyst, biodiesel, production cost
INTRODUCTION
Biodiesel is a renewable, biodegradable and
environmental benign liquid fuel capable of replacing
fossil diesel. Biodiesel has a lot of advantages over fossil
diesel such as; lubricating, low sulphur emission (Gerald
et al, 2003), low greenhouse gas emission (Rubi et al,
2011), absence of aromatic compounds and its
renewability. However, the cost of production of biodiesel
is expensive, hence the diesel users do not ask for it
which makes the business of producing it in Nigeria
especially unattractive. As a prospective fuel it has to
compete economically with petro-diesel therefore, the
only way of reducing the biodiesel cost is to use less
expensive process and raw materials such as nonedible
oil and cheap catalysts. In this work, bulk calcium oxide
catalyst was synthesized locally and it was used to
produce biodiesel with Palm Oil (PO) and Jatropha
curcas Oil (JCO) at the same reaction conditions of time
and temperature and their yields were compared. Palm
oil is in abundant in Nigeria but the used of it for biodiesel
production will definitively affect its price and will result in
food crisis. Jatropha curcas Oil is not edible and plant
can be grown in non-arable land for biodiesel production
without causing any food crisis. Calcium carbonate is
also found in abundance in Nigeria hence; calcium oxide
catalyst can easily and cheaply be synthesized for
biodiesel production.
This work was carried out in order to arouse interest of
entrepreneurs into business of biodiesel production in
Nigeria which will provide jobs and empower rural
dwellers especially those living in non-arable land areas
by farming Jatropha curcas seed for biodiesel production
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The materials used in this investigation include; an oven
for drying the sample, a furnace for firing the catalyst and
ceramic crucibles. A top loading balance, conical flasks,
magnetic stirrer, hot plate, thermometer and separating
funnel for separating biodiesel from glycerol were among
*Corresponding author. E-mail: ibrahimhauna@yahoo.com.
1
temperature was maintained at 600C throughout the
reaction period. In the second reaction same quantity of
palm oil, methanol and catalyst were used at 650C for 75
minutes. The same procedure was repeated for J. curcas
oil. The reactions were carried out in a conical flask
covered with aluminium foil and was mounted on a
magnetic stirrer.
the apparatus used in this research work. The reagents
used
include,
analytical
grade
methanol
for
transesterification,
propan-2-ol,
0.1M
potassium
hydroxide for determination of FFA of the oils and GC-MS
for biodiesel yield analysis.
Preparation of Calcium oxide Catalyst
Separation
A bag weight of 50kg hydrated lime was collected from
Pilot plant division of National Research Institute for
Chemical Technology, Zaria. 200 g of the hydrated lime
was dried in an oven to constant weight. The calcium
oxide obtained was calcined in a furnace at 9000C for 90
minutes at 50% power rate.
At the end of each reaction time the products were
filtered and the filtrated were transferred into separating
funnel and left for an hour or more to allow separation of
biodiesel and glycerol. The residue was the solid catalyst
(CaO). Glycerol which is denser than biodiesel was
collected out at bottom of the funnel leaving biodiesel on
top. These products were collected separately for
analysis.
Ca  OH 2  CaO  H 2O
Determination of FFA and Esterification
Ester Test
The acid values of the two oil was first determine by
dissolving I.0 g of oil sample in 25 ml of propan-2-ol and
the solution formed was titrated against 0.1 M potassium
hydroxide to pink colour. A blank titration was also
performed by titrating 25 ml of propan-2-ol against 0.1 M
potassium hydroxide to pink. The difference of the two
titre values, v was used for determining the FFA.
A quick test which is also called ester test was performed
on each of the biodiesel sample produced by dissolving
10 ml of biodiesel in 40 ml of methanol.
GC-MS Analysis
Biodiesel sample from each batch was taken to GC-MS
analysis in the instrumentation Division of National
Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Zaria.
0.1M  v  56.1g / mol
FFA 
1.0 g
Where, v is the titre value.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
%FFA  FFA / 2
Biodiesel is a mixture of alkyl alkanoates (alkyl esters)
where the alkyl could be methyl, ethyl or any other higher
alkyl radical depending from the alcohol that was used for
the transesterification. When methanol is used the
biodiesel will consists of methyl esters mixture and ethyl
esters if ethanol is used. The methyl esters found in the
biodiesel products are shown in the table below with their
percentage composition. The results show that higher
esters of 20 to 25 carbons though at relatively small
amount were produced at higher temperature with palm
oil and not much of such components were found in
Jatropha curcas oil biodiesel products. Shown in the table
are the names of the methyl esters, their molecular
formulas (MF) and percentage compositions. These
results show that the yield of biodiesel from palm oil
increases with temperature as shown in the table from 60
to 650C but that of jatropha decreases, but at the same
temperature Jatropha curcas oil yielded more biodiesel
than palm oil. In the case of palm oil, 600C temperature
favours meddle methyl esters of C17-C19 while 650C
produced all ranges from C10 to C25 methyl esters. The
The %FFA of palm oil was found to be 0.98% and that of
the jatropha was 5.2%. The FFA of the jatropha was
reduced to 0.87% by esterifying with methanol and
concentrated sulphuric acid. This was done by heating
2.25 x 0.052 x 300 g of methanol and 0.05 x 0.052 x 300
g of sulphuric acid (Garpen et al, 2004) at 600C for 60
minutes on a magnetic stirrer. . (300 g was the mass oil
that was esterified).
Transesterification
300 g of palm oil was transesterified with 60 g methanol
and 4.5g (1.5% mass of the oil) of the synthesized
calcium oxide catalyst at 600C for 90 minutes. The palm
oil was first heated to 600C in a conical flask and then,
the calcium oxide and methanol mixture was poured into
the hot oil. A magnetic stirrer was dropped into the
reaction mixture to stir the reactants. The reaction
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Table1: percentage composition of methyl esters in the products
Methyl ester composition
Methyl octanoate
Methyl nonanoate
Methyl decanoate
Methyl 10-undecenoate
Methyl undecanoate
Methyl dodecanoate (laurate)
Methyl tridecanoate
Methyl mysristate
Methyl pentadecanoate
Methyl hexadecanoate
Methyl palmitoleate
Methyl -11-hexadecenoate
Methyl-7-hexadecanoate
Methyl 14-methylpentadecanoate
Methyl 8-(2hexylcyclopropyl)ocatanoate
Methyl 15-methylhexadecanoate
Methyl linoate
Methyl-9,12-octadecadienoate
Methyl-8,11-octadecadienoate
Methyl-10,13-octadecadienoate
Methyl -3-octadecenoate
Methyl oleate
Methyl heptadecanoate
Methyl cis-octadec-10-enoate
Methyl cis-octadec-11-enoate
Methyl trans-9-octadecanoate (elaide)
Methyl -9-octadecenoate
Methyl 9-octadecenoate
Methyl -10-octadecenoate
Methyl 7-octadecenoate
Methyl 8-octadecenoate
Methyl 15-octadecenoate
Methyl octadecanoate
Methyl 16-methylheptadecanoate
Methyl hydrosterculate
Methyl-10-nonadecenoate
Methyl -11-icosenoate
Methyl eicosanoate
Methyl heneicosanoate
Methyl -15-tetracosenoate
Total
MF
PO
%
C9H18O2
C10H20O2
C11H22O2
C12H22O2
C12H24O2
C13H24O2
C14H28O2
C15H30O2
C16H32O2
C17H34O2
C17H32O2
C17H32O2
C17H32O2
C17H34O2
C18H34O2
C18H36O2
C19H34O2
C19H34O2
C19H34O2
C19H34O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C18H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H36O2
C19H38O2
C19H38O2
C20H38O2
C20H38O2
C21H40O2
C21H42O2
C22H44O2
C25H48O2
JCO
%
0.054
0.054
JCO
%
0.160
0.040
0.188
0.168
0.504
15.200
15.200
0.054
3.694
0.964
1.640
0.410
11.004
0.972
0.972
7.336
0.588
8.740
0.112
9.968
4.984
4.984
4.984
8.542
0.102
0.114
0.362
0.054
0.162
11.032
1.800
0.900
19.920
0.844
2.758
5.034
0.422
1.874
12.016
8.542
8.542
4.040
4.040
4.040
4.040
0.900
0.412
25.880
12.940
24.032
1.874
12.016
25.880
0.422
12.016
8.542
4.040
8.542
3.888
86.410
results of Jartopha curcas oil do not show much
difference, however, methyl esters of C9 and C10 were
found in 650C product but not in 600C product.
The results also show that using Jatropha curcas seed
Oil biodiesel can be produced at low temperature of 60 0C
and using molar ratio of 5.5: 1 of methanol to oil.
Temperature higher that 600C may results in lower yield.
PO
%
10.416
2.604
0.486
0.102
0.336
0.354
1.172
89.134
11.392
2.848
0.900
5.622
0.422
0.412
99.078
96.93
biodiesel production and it is very simple to synthesize.
With calcium oxide, transesterification can now be carried
out in 60 minutes as against 150 minutes (Isahak et al,
2010) and 180 minutes (Hawash et al, 2011). Also, with
mole ratio 5.5:1 good yield can be obtained using calcium
oxide catalyst as against 18:1 (Highina et al, 2011) and
12:1 (Hawash et al, 2011). The composition of biodiesel
varies with reaction conditions. J. curcas seed oil can be
relied upon among other non-edible seed oils for
biodiesel production. The use of Jatropha curcas oil and
calcium oxide catalyst will make better alternative
materials of biodiesel production as calcium carbonate is
CONCLUSION
Calcium oxide catalyst is an excellent catalyst for
3
chiefly abundant in the Nigeria.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All the reagents and materials used in carryout this
belong National Research Institute for Chemical
Technology NARICT, Zaria.
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(2004). Biodiesel Production Technolog, National Renewable Energy
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Hawash, G.E.l., Diwani, E. and Abdel K. (2011). Optimization of
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Catalysed Transesterification, Int. J. Engine. Sci. Technol.
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(2010). Transesterification of Palm Oil Using Nano-Calcium oxide as
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