Reactive extraction of non-edible oil seeds for biodiesel production

Biodiesel is one of the potential global liquid transportation fuels that might replace diesel. Government of India had launched a national mission on Biofuels with the aim of achieving a target of 20% blending of biodiesel by 2012. For this purpose, economic and sustainable production of biodiesel is required. This paper studies the reactive extraction of biodiesel from two potential non-edible oil seeds (karanja and simarouba glauca). A statistical study was carried out to determine the influence of operating parameters on the biodiesel yield. The smallest seed size resulted in high biodiesel yield whereas the optimum methanol to oil ratio and catalyst concentration depended on the type of feed. Reaction temperature of 65 degrees C was found to be optimum. The H-1-NMR and gas chromatographic analyses results were comparable. It was found from H-1-NMR analysis that biodiesel produced from reactive extraction of simarouba had better oxidation stability as compared to karanja.