Transesterification of vegetable oils is an important reaction that produces
fatty acid alkyl esters, methyl and ethyl esters which are excellent substitutes
for diesel fuel. Biodiesel prepared by catalyzed mild tranesterification has
become of much current interest for alternative fuel production. In the
present study the ability of a commercial immobilized Pseudomonas
fluorescens to catalyze the transesterification of Jatropha oil and methanol
was investigated. The cell of P. fluorescens was easily immobilized within
the sodium alginate during batch process. The important parameters like
temperature, pH, reaction time and amount of beads was studied. From the
study it was found that maximum yield of biodiesel was obtained at the
optimum conditions of at 40Ԩ, pH of 7.0, reaction time 48hrs and amount of
beads 3g. the physical properties of the products were analyzed and the
results were compared with the other sources of oils like used vegetable oils.