Growing environmental concern and fast depletion of conventional fossil fuel resources have induced an urgent search for alternative energy sources. In this regard, biodiesel obtained from Jatropha oil (a non-food oil), seems to be a very promising alternative. Though a lot of research is already done in catalytic transesterification, in the present work, conversion of high FFA (5.5%) bearing Jatropha oil to methyl ester was studied using synthesized KF/CaO solid catalyst. The novelty of this heterogeneous catalyst is the omission of two major steps — neutralization step in which acid is used followed by transesterification using the basic homogeneous catalyst. The catalyst KF/CaO is easily prepared from cheap chemicals and is safe for the environment. The catalyst was characterized by mean of TPD of CO₂, X-ray diffraction, BET surface area (SA) analyzer. Catalytic transesterification of this oil was studied with different reaction parameters to achieve a 97% conversion. Optimization of conditions (molar ratio of methanol/oil, time, temperature and catalyst dosage) was also established. The present work makes the process not only safer to the environment but also shows the gateway for greener alternatives to the energy of high FFA oils.

中文翻译：

---

K浸渍CaO多相催化剂对麻疯树油的酯交换反应。

对环境的日益关注和常规化石燃料资源的迅速枯竭引起了对替代能源的紧迫搜寻。在这方面，从麻风树油（一种非食用油）获得的生物柴油似乎是非常有前途的替代品。尽管在催化酯交换反应方面已经进行了大量研究，但在目前的工作中，使用合成的KF / CaO固体催化剂研究了含有高FFA（5.5％）的麻风树油向甲基酯的转化。这种非均相催化剂的新颖之处在于省去了两个主要步骤-中和步骤，在其中使用酸，然后使用碱性均相催化剂进行酯交换。催化剂KF / CaO可以轻松地由廉价的化学品制备，并且对环境安全。该催化剂的特征在于CO的TPD_参照图2，X射线衍射，BET表面积（SA）分析仪。用不同的反应参数研究了该油的催化酯交换反应，以实现97％的转化率。还建立了条件的优化（甲醇/油的摩尔比，时间，温度和催化剂用量）。目前的工作不仅使该方法对环境更安全，而且为高FFA油能源的绿色替代方法提供了途径。