Since the price of fossil fuel has increased, petroleum resources have been restricted and the environmental effects have been of great concern. Biofuel has been considered to be a good solution because it is a clean, non-pollutant and a renewable energy. Biodiesel is one alternative energy that plays a major role in the energy industry. So, the development of biofuel process is more interesting. Jatropha curcas L. is considered as an alternative energy source in order to help solve the energy crisis.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the optimum condition of Jatropha seed extraction via a screw press and its by-product utilization by a pyrolysis method for achieving the maximum mass conversion and energy recovery. In this study, Jatropha seeds were first extracted by a screw press with different discharge aperture sizes, namely, number 4 (4.0 mm), 8 (7.0 mm), and 10 (10.5 mm). The by-product obtained from a screw press was then performed pyrolysis runs at the operating temperatures of 400, 500, and 600 degrees C.
Results revealed that the optimum condition was achieved when using discharge aperture number 8 (7.0 mm) for a screw press and performing the pyrolysis of the by- product at 500 degrees C. The mass conversion efficiency of 35.8% refined oil, 21.8% bio-char, 14.6% bio-oil, and 11.7% syn-gas were obtained. Therefore, the utilization of by-product using a pyrolysis can enhance the effectiveness of Jatropha oil extraction with only 16% mass losses occurred. In addition, the gross heating values of the products were observed as 39.6 MJ/kg for the refined oil, 35.1 MJ/kg for the bio-oil, 27.5 MJ/kg for the bio-char, and 2.1 MJ/kg for the syn-gas. Due to a high mass conversion efficiency and energy content of Jatropha products, Jatropha has the potential to serve as an alternative energy source.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/148069 |
| Date | 14 March 2013 |
| Creators | Kongkasawan, Jinjuta 1987- |
| Contributors | Capareda, Sergio C |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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