Studies on biodiesel production from Jatropha Curcas oil using chemical and biochemical methods - A mathematical approach

As fossil fuel declining worldwide, attention is grown up to develop a cost effective process for biodiesel production from renewable sources such as Jatropha Curcas Plant. Biodiesel can be produced by transesterification of Jatropha Curcas oil using chemical catalyst or biocatalyst. In this research article, we formulate and analyze two mathematical models of transesterification reaction with respect to chemical catalyst and enzyme catalyst respectively. The model systems are solved numerically by Runge-Kutta method. A comparative mathematical study has been made between these two processes with respect to product efficiency, reaction conditions and mass transfer. We also apply control theoretic approach in mixing intensity through biocatalytic process for cost effective production of biodiesel from Jatropha Curcas oil. The validity of both the models is established by experimental results available in literatures. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.