A comparative study of molar ratio effect on transesterification of Jatropha Curcas using kinetic and fuzzy techniques

Biodiesel is a biodegradable source of fuel that can be synthesised from edible, non-edible and waste oils through transesterification process. In this paper, we presented transesterification reaction of Jatropha Curcas oil by using sodium hydroxide catalyst at 150°C in batch reactor. Further, we designed the fuzzy model of the molar ratio and the performance evaluated by comparing fuzzy model with batch kinetic data. Fuzzy models were developed using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). It is observed that in batch operation molar ratio have a significant effect on product formation and higher molar ratio push the reaction into forward direction to attain the chemical equilibrium. [Received: August 4, 2010; Accepted: December 9, 2010]

Keywords: transesterification, molar ratio, Jatropha Curcas oil, chemical kinetics, fuzzy modelling, biodiesel, biofuels, alternative fuel, sodium hydroxide, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, ANFIS, fuzzy logic, neural networks