Deacidification of Jatropha Curcas Oil by Extraction for Biodiesel Production

The acid value of jatropha curcas oil is 9.41mgKOH/g. The most of fatty acids should be removed if base catalysts are adopted to catalyze the transesterification reaction for biodiesel production in case of soap formation. In this study, methanol and ethanol were adopted to extract the fatty acids in jatropha curcas oil. Then, it was catalyzed by calcium methoxide for biodiesel production. The extracted fatty acids can be used to produce biodiesel at supercritical or sulfuric acid conditions. The results indicated that the acid value of jatropha curcas oil decrease to 0.31 mgKOH/g from 9.41 mgKOH/g using ethanol extraction for 3 times at 25°C. The biodiesel yield exceeded 96% using solid base catalyst. The advantages of methanol and ethanol extractions are low oil loss and high biodiesel yield.