Characterization of Jatropha Oil and its Biodiesel
PI Aigba, FC Anyadiegwu, JC Ogoke
Abstract
The ever-increasing demand in consumption of fossil fuel strongly contradicted by its depletion in reserves coupled with the Green House Gas effect associated with the combustion of hydrocarbon has opened a channel for the inevitable desire for an environmentally friendly and a renewable source of energy like bio-fuel. Oil extracted from Jatropha curcas, a non edible plant looks good to be one of the solutions of the problems associated with energy consumption in recent time. Dried Jatropha seeds were shelled and oven-dried and weighed for every 30 minutes until a constant weight was obtained indicating that moisture had been taken care of 300 g of milled Jatropha was soaked in 2000 cm<sup>3</sup> of petroleum ether and covered for 48 hours to avoid vaporization.