Physico-Chemical Properties of Biodiesel Obtained from Jatropha Curcas Seeds Oil Using CoMgFe₂O₄ and MgFe₂O₄ as Nanocatalysts

Abstract

The chemical evaluation of Jatropha curcas (barbados nut) seeds was carried out to ascertain the proximate composition, ascorbic acid content of the seeds, elemental analysis and physicochemical properties of the biodiesel produced from Jatropha curcas seeds oil. Standard Analytical Methods were employed in the analysis. The result of the proximate composition was shown to be moisture (4.00%), ash (6.00%), fat (40.00%), fibre (8.00%), protein (27.65%) and carbohydrate (18.35%). The ascorbic acid content was found to be 5.16%. The seeds of Jatropha curcas yield 432 ml which represents 36% of the extracted oil without any catalyst. In the presence of CoMgFe₂O₄ nanocatalyst the yield was 2174 ml which is 92 % biodiesel produced. It was observed that the MgFe₂O₄ nanocatalyst was not a very good catalyst for the system studied as compared to CoMgFe₂O₄. Some of the parameters that were considered include; time, temperature, catalysts concentration and reactant ratio, the best combination of the parameters was found as 7:1 molar ratio of methanol to oil, 0.5 % CoMgFe₂O₄ nanocatalyst, 60 oC reaction temperature and 180 minutes of reaction time. Physico-chemical analysis of the biodiesel produced gave a flash point of (87 min.), specific gravity of 0.87, FFA (18.06 mgKOH/g), viscosity (3.8 mm2/s-1), iodine value (110 mg/I2), peroxide value (0.30 mg/I2), saponification value (189 mgKOH/g), refractive index 1.26 and density (0.89g/cm3). This study revealed that Jatropha curcas seeds have low moisture content, high fat and protein and could be a good source of oil for biodiesel production using CoMgFe₂O₄ nanocatalyst.

Keywords: Jatropha curcas oil, CoMgFe2O4 Nanocatalysts, MgFe2O4 Nanocatalysts, biodiesel, Transesterification.