Transesterification of Castor Oil: Effect of Catalyst and Co-Solvent

Biodiesel is emerging as an alternative fuel with several advantages over the common petroleum based fuels. In its production, however, variables such as raw material, catalyst, and co-solvent are an issue worth exploring because of the impact they have on final biodiesel properties. Therefore, this work aims to establish the effect of the aforesaid variables on methyl ester content, viscosity, acidity, and water content of biodiesel produced from castor oil. In this context, the methanolysis of castor oil has been conducted at 60 °C in a batch reactor, and the effect of three alkaline catalysts (CH3ONa, NaOH, and KOH) and a co-solvent (hexane) has been established. It is concluded that sodium methoxide leads to considerably higher methyl ester content than the other essayed catalysts. Besides, when utilizing a co-solvent the methyl ester content increases up to a very close value (95.5%) to that established by the EN14214 norm (>96.5%). This has been ascribed to a significant improvement on oil−methanol contact.