Preparation of Neem oil methyl ester from high (FFA) Neem oil in an Oscillatory Baffled Reactor

The diminishing petroleum reservoirs, concern for environment and increasing prices of crude oil have led to many researches, scientist and academies to quest for renewable source of energy. Among many renewable sources of energy biodiesel is one such alternative. In a developing country like India where production of edible oils is less and cost is more hence it is not economically feasible to produce biodiesel from edible oil. Therefore biodiesel preparation from non-edible oil will be an alternative. Hence in our present study we have prepared biodiesel from neem oil which is non-edible oil. Since acid value of neem oil was more than 1% i.e. 10.92 mg of KOH/gm of oil, the production of biodiesel were carried out in two stages. In first stage esterification process was carried out and the optimum combinations of parameters were found to be 1:9 Oil to Methanol Molar ratio, 3% v/v H2SO4 acid catalyst and 10 minutes reaction time. In the second stage process treated oil were converted to Neem oil methyl ester. The optimum combination for second stage transterification process were found to be 1:9 Oil to Methanol Molar ratio, 0.75 (w/w) KOH as based catalyst and 10 minute reaction time. The second stage process gives an average yield of 91.7%. The fuel calorific value of neem oil methyl ester (biodiesel) was found to be comparable to those of petro diesel.