Preparation of karanja oil methyl ester

Abstract

Biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester) which is derived from triglycerides by transesterification , has attracted considerable attention during the past decade as a renewable, biodegradable and nontoxic fuel. Several processes for biodiesel fuel production have been developed, among which transesterification using alkali as catalyst gives high level of conversion of triglycerides to their corresponding methyl ester in a short duration. This process has therefore been widely utilized for biodiesel fuel production in a number of countries. In India, non-edible oils like karanja oil and jatropha oil are available in abundance, which can be converted to biodiesel. In the present studies, biodiesel has been prepared from karanja oil. As the acid values of this oil was more than 3, so it was converted to biodiesel by esterification followed by transesterification process. The methyl ester produced by these methods was analyzed to acertain their suitability as diesel fuels.