Jatropha oil

5 Case Study on the Use of Jatropha Oil as a Carhon Substrate for PHA Biosynthesis 

Research on J. curcas L. as a renewable resource has been carried out intensively because this plant is claimed to thrive on even the poorest stony soil and in very harsh climates. More importantly, the cultivation of Jatropha plants is estimated to cost less than soybeans (0.39 and 1.64 USD/kg oil, respectively) due to their lower fertilizer and pesticide requirements (Gui et al. 2008). In addition, J. curcas has a productive life of up to 50 years, and the seeds may yield up to 58 wt% oil (Marti nez-Herrera et al. 2006). Apart from the advantages mentioned above, it is speculated that jatropha oil has great potential as the feedstock for PHA production 

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. 

necator H16 could utilize plant oil as carbon source after the hydrolysis of oil into fatty acids and glycerol by the secreted extracellular lipases and esterases. Initially, one pair of lipase/chaperone gene and one esterase gene were detected in Ralstonia sp. Ml by Quyen et al. (2005, 2007). However, recent gene expression study by Brigham et al. (2010) showed that C. necator H16 putatively possessed 

The incorporation of 3HV into the copolymer increases proportionally with the concentration of sodium valerate or sodium propionate added to the culture medium (Ishihara et al. 1996 Shang et al. 2004 Abdelhad et al. 2009). With higher concentration of precursors (3.36 and 4.32 g/L), more residual oil was present in the culture medium, indicating that the jatropha oil was less utilized. The 3HV monomer composition in P(3HB-co-3HV) produced from sodium valerate addition was higher (3-41 mol%) compared to that produced using sodium propionate (2-27 mol%) (Lee et al. 2008). The biosynthesis of P(3HB-co-3HV) from sodium valerate is more effective because the metabolic pathway is more exclusive for the biosynthesis of 3HV monomer. Sodium valerate can be converted via /3-oxidation cycle into 3-hydroxyvaleryl-CoA intermediate to be incorporated directly into P(3HB-co-3HV) without catabolism (Doi et al. 1988b). A 3HV composition as high as 90 mol% had been achieved from valeric acid in some studies (Mitomo et al. 1999 Khanna and Srivastava 2007). 

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Another possible feedstock is jatropha oil. Deforestation is, in general, no problem with jatropha, as it is a typical crop for arid and degraded land. However, the use of jatropha is still under investigation. 

Another oil used for epoxidation with MT0/H202 is the oil from Jatropha curcas L. also known as Barbados or Physic nut. As with palm oil, it mostly consists of oleic acid (50%) and linoleic acid (29%) and various saturated fatty acids (20%). With 0.5 mol% of MTO and 12 mol% of pyridine in biphasic conditions, it was found that Jatropha oil can be completely epoxidized within 1.5 h [78]. 

Candida antarctica (Novozym 435) Ethyl acetate Jatropha oil Free 91% Modi et al., 2007... 

There has thus also been great interest recently in preparing novel solid base catalysts. One motivation is also given by the use of these basic catalysts in the production of biofuels. The most relevant example is the transesterification of vegetable oils (palm oil, soybean oU, jatropha oil, coconut oil, rapeseed oil, etc.). Figure 2.48 shows the scheme of the process. Transesterification reactions predominantly use homogeneous base catalysts, for example, sodium methoxide, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. The main differences between the commercial processes lie in the following ... 

Extensive performance testing has been carried out in pilot plants to determine the optimum process conditions, catalyst stability and product properties. A range of vegetable oils have been processed in the pilot plants, including soybean, rapeseed, palm and jatropha oil. Other potential feedstocks, including tallow and greases derived from animals, have been evaluated. 

Properties of Jatropha Oil and the Methyl Esters derived from it... 

The properties of the Jatropha oil and the resultant methyl esters are given in Table 2, together with those of Diesel No.2 and kerosene fuels. 

The kinematic viscosity of Jatropha oil at 40 C was 31.5 cSt. After transesterification to the Jatropha methyl esters, viscosity was reduced to 4.4 cST. The viscosities of kerosene and diesel No.2 were 2.35 cSt and 4.16 cSt respectively. Thus JCME has a viscosity 1.9 times that of kerosene and 1.06 that of diesel No.2. At 20 C, the density of JCME was found to be 1.1 times that of kerosene and 1.03 times of that of diesel No.2. 

Jatropha oil can be used as biodiesel and is highly compatible with petro-diesel up to 100% and can be used in diesel engines without having to make any change in them. 

Glycerine, by-product of processing of jatropha oil for the production of biodiesel would reduce the cost of biodiesel and makes it economically viable since the operational costs would be abated by selling the glycerine which fetches more money (per unit cost) than the biodiesel produced. 

According to the National Biodiesel Steering Committee set up in 2005, smaller units for the trans-esterification of jatropha oil into biodiesel were under trial and it would be possible to run the apparatus on a much larger quantity of feedstock. 

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. 

One member would be chosen and assigned as a District Coordinator, with responsibility for administering the project in the district. Ten volunteers would be chosen and assigned as head of each cluster. 100 villagers who closely work in the project would be chosen and assigned as village heads. The 15 districts would feed the provincial biodiesel plant with at least 1 350 000 tonnes/year of jatropha oil. 

Biodiesel fuel can be produced from jatropha oil using a fairly simple chemical reaction known as trans-esterification. In this process, the oil reacts with a simple alcohol (methanol/ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst (caustic soda/potash) and, under specified conditions such as a temperature of 65°C and normal atmospheric pressure, yields a mixture of methyl or ethyl esters which is the biodiesel. This fuel... 

Figure 1 Flow Chart for Biodiesel Production from Jatropha oil...

The extraction section at the plant site will be composed of three modular oil extractions plants, each with the capacity to process 300 toimes of jatropha seed per day. This translates to about 100 000 liters of jatropha oil per day (with an oil extraction efficiency of 30%) making a combined total of about 300 000 liters of jatropha oil per day (the density of jatropha oil being about 0.860 g/ml). The whole process may be divided as follows ... 

Jatropha oil collected from farmers or the oil extraction plant is stored in large tanks with a capacity of one month s supply of oil. Pumps PI and P2 transfer the oil into six 5m capacity batch reactors each with an internal oil heating jacket. Each of the reactors has a simple explosion-proof paddle mixer, which has a fixed speed of 750 rpm. Methanol is added to the catalyst preparation tank using air operated pumps P3 and P4. The prepared alcohol catalyst solution is added to the reaction tank using... 

The use of jatropha oil as fuel in oil lamps was another interesting use due to the scarcity of paraffin within the country. Some individuals have embarked on producing jatropha oil lamps, but there are some scientific aspects that need to be addressed to improve the efficiency of the lamps, particularly with respect to the wick, which is too thick. 

Abstract Studies have shown that the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) from plant oils is more efficient than from sugars in terms of productivity. Among the various plant oils, pahn oil is the most efficiently produced oil in the world. The main application of pahn oil is as a source of dietary fat. The conversion of food grade substrates to non-food materials is of concern because of the increasing need to feed the rapidly growing human population. Therefore, the by-products of the plant oil industry may be a better feedstock for PHA production. Alternatively, non-food grade oils such as jatropha oil can be developed as a feedstock for PHA production. This chapter looks at the potential of jatropha oil as a possible feedstock for the biosynthesis of PHA. 

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

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