Dept. of Natural Resources and Waste Recycling, School of Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai – 625 021, India
*Corresponding author: E Mail: meena_energy@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 11 June, 2014.
Chemical mode of transesterification of oil in the presence of alkali was found to be inefficient when the oil contained high quantity of free fatty acids. Hence a double stage process was found necessary. Unrefined rubber seed oil was chosen for this study as it had 25.15 ± 0.85 percent free fatty acids. A noticeable reduction in viscosity of oil was observed due to transesterification. Among the various acids tried maximum reduction of free fatty acid content was reached in sulphuric acid treatment at a dose of 11.2ml/l of oil in two stages. Third stage treatment of sulphuric acid was not advantageous. In acid esterification process, highest efficiency was obtained when the molar ratio of methanol to oil was 12:1. The effect of variables such as temperature, duration of acid esterification process was also assessed. The role of alkaline catalysts and the molar ratio of methanol used were also studied.
Rubber seed oil, transesterification, biodiesel, viscosity
