Crude jatropha oil

People in many villages are familiar with the use of crude jatropha oil or other oils of plant origin (for example, castor oil) for the purposes of lighting and lubrication. The crude jatropha oil cannot travel up the wick in a lamp due to its high viscosity, and can thus be used only in very shallow lamps. 

Also due to its high viscosity, it could not be used directly in the internal combustion engines of modem vehicles, hence efforts were made by Eng. C.S. Shonhiwa of University of Zimbabwe to develop a biodiesel production unit which would change the physical properties of the crude jatropha oil to suit modem vehicles, and this was patented in 2004. The unit is able to convert cmde jatropha oil from a highly viscous oil to an oil which is highly compatible with petrol-diesel. 

Kawakami, K., Y. Oda, and R. Takahashi. 2011. Application of a Burkholderia Cepacia Lipase-Immobilized Silica Monolith to Batch and Continuous Biodiesel Production with a Stoichiometric Mixture of Methanol and Crude Jatropha Oil. Biotechnology for Biofuels 4 (1) 42. 

Samniang, A., C. Tipachan, and S. Kajomcheappun-Ngam. 2014. Comparison of Biodiesel Production from Crude Jatropha Oil and Krating Oil by Supercritical Methanol Transesterification. Renewable Energy 68 351-355. 

Keywords Crude pahn kernel oil (CPKO) Jatropha curcas Jatropha oil Palm oil Plant oils Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)... 

Phorbol esters are hydrophobic and soluble in oil. It might be the main constituent in jatropha oil causing the toxic effect (Gandhi et al. 1995 Aregheore et al. 2003 Devappa et al. 2010). The toxins in jatropha oil were found not to affect the P(3HB) biosynthesis by the bacterial strain used in this study even when the concentration of oil was as high as 12.5 g/L. The toxin concentration, most probably the phorbol esters content, was too low to exhibit toxicity effects on the cells (Devappa et aL 2010). This is further supported by the analysis on phorbol esters content in the crude oil of J. curcas seeds from Indonesia, India, and Malaysia by (Ahmed and SaUmon 2(X)9). The lowest concentration and least types of phorbol esters were detected in jatropha oil from Malaysia. 

Berchmans, H. J., and S. Hirata. 2008. Biodiesel Production from Crude Jatropha Curcas L. Seed Oil with a High Content of Eree Eatty Acids. Bioresource Technology 99 (6) 1716-1721. 

Beichmans HJ, Hirata S. Biodiesel production from crude Jatropha curcas L. seed oil with a high content of free fatty acids. Bioresour Technol 2008 99 1716—1721. 

Olutoye, M.A., and Hameed, B.H. Synthesis of fatty acid methyl ester from crude jatropha (Jatropha curcas Linnaeus) oil using aluminum oxide modified Mg-Zn heterogeneous catalyst. Biores Technol 1 2,6392-6398 (2011). 

Berchmans, H.J., Hirata, S., 2008. Biodiesel production from crude Jatropha curcas L. seed oil with a high content of free fatty acids. Bioresource Technology 99 (6), 1716—1721. Available at http //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17531473 (accessed 21.04.15.). 

Jatropha seed cake is used as an organic fertilizer and bio-pesticide. De-oiled seed cake has a crude protein content of between 53%-60% and a favourable amino acid profile. However, the seed cake is toxic due to phorbol esters, trypsin inhibitors, etc. On detoxification it can provide a highly nutritious feed material. 

Taufiq-Yap, Y.H., et al., 2014. Transesterification of Jatropha curcas crude oil to biodiesel on calcium lanthanum mixed oxide catalyst effect of stoichiometric composition. Energy Conversion and Management 88,1290—1296. Available at http //linkinghub.elsevier.com/ retrieve/pii/S0196890414000806 (accessed 22.04.15.). 

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