Efficient Micromixing for Continuous Biodiesel Production from Jatropha Oil

Introduction: The utilization of biodiesel as an alternative fuel is turning out to be progressively famous these days because of worldwide energy deficiency. The enthusiasm for utilizing Jatropha as a non-edible oil feedstock is quickly developing. The performance of the base catalyzed methanolysis reaction could be improved by a continuous process through a microreactor in view of the high mass transfer coefficient of this technique. Materials & Methods: Nanozirconium tungstovanadate, which was synthetized using sol-gel preparation method, was utilized in a complementary step for biodiesel production process. The prepared material has an average diameter of 0.066 μm. Results: First, the NaOH catalyzed methanolysis of Jatropha oil was investigated in a continuous microreactor, and the efficient mixing over different mixers and its impact on the biodiesel yield were studied under varied conditions. Second, the effect of adding the nanocatalyst as a second stage was investigated. Conclusion: The maximum percentage of produced methyl esters from Jatropha oil was 98.1% using a methanol/Jatropha oil molar ratio of 11 within 94 s using 1% NaOH at 60 °C. The same maximum conversion ratio was recorded with the nanocatalyst via only 0.3% NaOH.