Integrated process for the production of <i>Jatropha </i>methyl ester and by products

摘要

The present invention provides a simpler and more energy efficient process for the preparation of fatty acid methyl ester (biodiesel) from sun dried whole seed capsules of Jatropha curcas integrated with value addition of seed shells, deoiled cake and crude glycerol co-product stream. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of dispensing with the need for excess methanol recovery through distillation, cost-effective resin treatment for the refining of methyl ester and utilization of co-streams for preparation of high density energy briquettes and Polyhydroxyalkanoate biodegradable polymer in efficient and cost-effective manner.

主权项

1. A process for the preparation of Jatropha Methyl Ester and byproducts comprising the steps of:
(a) expelling oil, oil cake and waste oil sludge from Jatropha seeds; (b) neutralizing the Jatropha oil to lower a free fatty acid content of the Jatropha oil; (c) transesterifying a first portion of the Jatropha oil neutralized in step (b) with an alcohol and a base as catalyst with stirring to form a crude Jatropha methyl ester layer and a crude glycerol layer, each of the crude Jatropha methyl ester layer and the crude glycerol layer comprising unreacted alcohol and partly active catalyst, and separating the crude glycerol layer and crude Jatropha methyl ester layer; (d) washing the crude Jatropha methyl ester layer separated in step (c) a plurality of times with glycerol and recovering a first portion of Jatropha methyl ester and a plurality of impure glycerol layers containing unreacted alcohol and partly active catalyst; (e) treating a second portion of the Jatropha oil neutralized in step (c) with the crude glycerol layer and first and second of the plurality of impure glycerol layers with stirring to transesterify the second portion of the Jatropha oil to form a second Jatropha methyl ester layer and a further glycerol layer, and separating the second Jatropha methyl ester layer and the further glycerol layer; (f) treating a third portion of the Jatropha oil neutralized in step (c) with the further glycerol layer with stirring to transesterify the third portion of the Jatropha oil, separating a third Jatropha methyl ester layer and a spent glycerol layer and, optionally, treating the recovered third Jatropha methyl ester layer with additional amounts of the alcohol and base and washing with glycerol; and (g) optionally treating a further portion of Jatropha oil neutralized in step (c) with the crude glycerol layer and the plurality of impure glycerol layers; wherein, in steps (e)-(g), unreacted alcohol in the respective crude glycerol layer, the first and second impure glycerol layers and the further glycerol layer are reactants in the transesterifying of at least the respective second and third portions of the Jatropha oil resulting in depletion, without distillation, of 80-95% of the unreacted alcohol that was present in the crude glycerol layer separated in step (c), wherein a portion of the spent glycerol layer is incorporated into a bacterial culture medium for production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, and wherein the process further comprises treating the oil cake with acid, recovering a hydrolysate, incorporating the hydrolysate into the bacterial culture medium as a nutrient and inoculating the bacterial culture medium with marine bacteria comprising MTCC 5445.