Biodiesel production via injection of superheated methanol technology at atmospheric pressure

Highlights: • Non-catalytic superheated methanol for biodiesel production is developed. • Crude Jatropha curcas oil with high FFA can be directly used as oil feedstock. • High content of biodiesel can be produced. • Separation of FAME and glycerol from the sample product is easy. - Abstract: In this high demand of renewable energy market, biodiesel was extensively produced via various catalytic and non-catalytic technologies. Conventional catalytic transesterification for biodiesel production has been shown to have limitation in terms of sensitivity to high water and free fatty acid, complicated separation and purification of biodiesel. In this study, an alternative and innovative approach was carried out via non-catalytic superheated methanol technology to produce biodiesel. Similar to supercritical reaction, the solvent need to be heated beyond the critical temperature but the reactor pressure remained at 0.1 MPa (atmospheric pressure). Transesterification reaction with superheated methanol was carried out at different reaction temperature within the limit of 270–300 °C and at different methanol flow rate ranging from 1 ml/min to 3 ml/min for 4 h. Results obtained showed that the highest biodiesel yield at 71.54% w/w was achieved at reaction temperature 290 °C and methanol flow rate at 2 ml/min with 88.81% w/w FAME content, implying the huge potential of superheated technology in producing FAME