The activity of wood ash, CWC and AWC catalysts was evaluated by the transesterification of Jatropha oil with methanol.
The reactions with pure K2CO3 and CaCO3 as catalyst were
carried out to investigate the effect of loading ratio of metal
carbonates with wood ash. Typical transesterification reaction was performed in a laboratory scale set-up, which
consists of 250 ml glass flask equipped with magnetic stirrer
and condenser, immersed in a constant temperature oil bath.
The desired quantity of catalyst was first mixed with oilmethanol (1:12 M ratio) mixture to maintain catalytic
activity at 40 C for 15 min. To the above stirred solution,
desired quantity of vegetable oil was added and the reaction
temperature was set at 65 C for the experiment. The progress
of the reaction was monitored by Thin Layer Chromatography
(TLC), using a composition of petroleum ether (85 ml): diethyl
ether (13.5 ml): glacial acetic acid (1.5 ml) mixture as the
mobile phase. After completion of the reaction, the material
was transferred to separator and two phases were separated.
Upper phase was biodiesel and lower was glycerin with catalyst. Biodiesel layer was directly dried under reduced
pressure to get rid of residual moisture