Continuous-flow transesterification of crude jatropha oil with microwave irradiation

Biodiesel is one of the major renewable energy sources, produced from vegetable oils. jatrophacurcas l. is considered as a promising energy crop for biodiesel production in thailand. this study is aboutcontinuous biodiesel production from jatropha oil by transesterification in a flow process with microwaveheating. sodium methoxide was used as a catalyst at concentrations between 0.25%1.5%, with microwavepower of 800 w, irradiation time between 1040 s, and oil to methanol molar ratio of 1:31:9, respectively.results showed that jatropha oil can be converted to biodiesel (96.5%) within 30 s under oil/methanolmolar ratio of 1:6 and 1.0% catalyst. the findings indicated that this method can offer alternative meansto produce biodiesel continuously.