Thermally Activated Palm Kernel Based Carbon as a Support for Edible Oil Hydrogenation Catalyst

Activated carbon has distinctive properties as a support for hydrogenation catalysts. Thermally activated carbon has been prepared from palm kernel shell at 1073 K and placed under nitrogen flow for 2 h. It was impregnated by palladium using toluene solution of Pd (acac)2. The Pd/C was reduced using a water solution of potassium borohydride (KBH4). The Pd-B/C was characterized by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Pd-B/C was applied for sunflower oil hydrogenation at a temperature of 373 K, hydrogen pressure of 413.5 kPa and agitation of 1400 rpm for 1 h. Pd-B/C noticeably exhibited a higher overall catalyst activity in comparison to some recently published palladium catalysts

TRANSTERSTERFICATION OF JATROPHA CURCAS OIL RADIATED WITH THE MICROWAVE

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Improving plant growth and yield of jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) through apical bud pinching

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of the time of apical pinching and genotype on plant growth, flowering time, and yield of Jatropha curcas L. at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia during 2008–2009. Three pinching treatments were used: no pinching or control (P0), pinching during transplanting (P1), and pinching at 30 days after transplanting (P2). Highly significant effect of time of pinching and genotype on plant growth and seed yield was observed. The plant height was significantly reduced by pinching the plant at 30 days after transplanting (72.4 cm) compared to pinching during transplanting (80.0 cm) and no pinching (95.5 cm). The maximum number of primary branches per plant (3.1) with more leaves per plant (113.2) and less plant height (72.2 cm) at first flowering was recorded with pinching at 30 days after transplanting. Among the treatments, unpinched plants produced flowers earlier than the pinched one. The highest number of fruits and seeds per plant along with higher seed yield was recorded in plants pinching at 30 days after transplanting. The maximum number of flowering branches was produced by genotype JC-14 followed by JC-18. The genotypes JC-13, JC-14, JC-17, JC-18, and JC-20 were found to be suitable in respect of reduced plant height; larger number of primary branches per plant; early flowering; and number of fruits, seeds, and seed yield per plant upon pinching

Jatropha Biofuel Industry: The Challenges

Considering environmental issues and to reduce dependency on fossil fuel many countries have politicized to replenish fossil fuel demand from renewable sources. Citing the potential of Jatropha mostly without any scientific and technological backup, it is believed to be one of the most suitable biofuel candidates. Huge grants were released by many projects for huge plantation of Jatropha (millions of hectares). Unfortunately, there has been no significant progress, and Jatropha did not contribute much in the energy scenario. Unavailability of high-yielding cultivar, large-scale plantation without the evaluation of the planting materials, knowledge gap and basic research gap seem to be the main reasons for failure. Thus, the production of Jatropha as a biofuel has been confronted with various challenges such as production, oil extraction, conversion and also its use as a sustainable biofuel. In this chapter, we disclose the challenges and possible remedy for the contribution in the biofuel industry

Effects of open- and self-pollination on fruit set and seed quality in Jatropha curcas L.

Investigation on different mating systems is necessary to improve fruit and seed production and seed quality in Jatropha curcas. In the present study, a total of 150 female flowers belonging to five accessions from Indonesia and Malaysia were screened for traits associated with fruit set and seed quality under open- and self-pollination. The study was conducted at Biodiesel Research Station, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Kuala Pilah from April to September 2015. The number of fruits per plant (NFP), number of seeds per plant (NSP) and number of seeds germinated (NSG) showed significant differences among the mating systems. Under open-pollination, the maximum mean values for NFP, NSP, NSG and number of seedlings surviving after three months (NSS) were 10, 29, 27 and 18, respectively. Conversely, self-pollination scored at 9, 26, 22 and 18 for NFP, NSP, NSG and NSS, respectively. Seed weight (SWt) showed significant differences among accessions whereas seed length (SLT) showed significant differences among the mating systems and accessions. UKMJC20 (Indonesia) showed the best performance in terms of NFP under both open- and self-pollination whereas UKMJC21 (Malaysia) showed the best performance in terms of SWt and SLT under both conditions. Two (UKMJC13 and UKMJC21) out of five accessions showed occurrence of apomixis

Non-Edible Vegetable Oils as Renewable Resources for Biodiesel Production: South-East Asia Perspective

Biodiesel derived from plant species has been a major renewable source of energy and has received global interest mainly due to climate change issue. It has increasingly received worldwide attention as a promising alternative fuel. Growing interest in biodiesel production from edible oil brings scarcity in food supply. To overcome this problem, utilization of non-edible oils could be explored. Non-edible oil as biodiesel feedstock impressed in many factors such as energy sustainability and independence in certain areas, especially in rural community, creating job opportunities, elevating environmental merits, and avoiding monoculture of fuel resources. The present chapter reviews several such potentials, including fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) or biodiesel production process of non-edible oil resources as biodiesel feedstock in South-East Asian geographical region. The South-East Asian countries fall in the tropical region of the world and have many species as non-edible oil, viz., jatropha, karanja, polanga, neem, rubber, and mahua. The oils derived from these species have shown considerable potential as biodiesel feedstock

Jatropha Curcas L. Biomass Waste and Its Utilization

Jatropha curcas L. is cultivated for its oil utilization as fuel feedstock. This main purpose is achieved with the biomass waste after oil extraction. The biomass wastes are leaf and stem from pruning, fruit hull, seed husk, and oily-cake. This paper discusses the utilization of the waste in order to achieve zero waste of jatropha and develop the jatropha utilizations. Jatropha waste is also utilized as fertilizer, briquettes, adsorbent, resin, and bioactive compost. It can also be utilized as feedstock for production of polymer composite, combustion for gasifier, biogas, liquid oil, and dye. These wide utilizations make jatropha very suitable for biofuel proposes

Catalytic steam reforming of glycerol over cerium and palladium-based catalysts for hydrogen production

In this work, catalytic steam reforming of glycerol for hydrogen production was performed over Ce/Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3 catalysts prepared via the impregnation method. The catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), BET surface area, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Two sets of catalytic reactions were conducted, one comparing 1% Pd/Al2O3 to 1% Ce/Al2O3 and the second comparing 1% Ce/Al2O3 loading to 10% Ce/Al2O3 loading. All catalytic reactions were performed using a fixed-bed reactor operated at 600 °C and atmospheric pressure. Aglycerol–water mixture at a molar ratio of 1:6 was fed to the reactor at 0.05 ml/min. In the first set of experiments, Pd/Al2O3 exhibited higher hydrogen productivity than Ce/Al2O3. A maximum hydrogen yield of 56% and a maximum selectivity of 78.7% were achieved over the Pd/Al2O3 catalyst. For the second set of experiments, the results show that the reaction conversion increased as the cerium loading increased from 1% to 10%. A total average hydrogen yield of 28.0% and a selectivity of 45.5% were obtained over 1% Ce/Al2O3, while the total average hydrogen yield and selectivity were 42.2% and 52.7%, respectively, for 10% Ce/Al2O3

Steam Reforming of Glycerol over Ni Supported Alumina Xerogel for Hydrogen Production

AbstractMomentous amount of glycerol is produced as a by-product during bio-diesel production by the transesterification of vegetable oils, which are available at low cost in large supply from renewable raw materials. As hydrogen is a clean energy carrier, conversion of glycerol to hydrogen is one among the most attractive ways to make use of glycerol. In this study, the catalytic production of hydrogen by steam reforming of glycerol has been experimentally performed in a fixed-bed reactor. The performance of this process was evaluated over 10wt% Ni supported alumina xerogel catalysts. Ni is impregnated over alumina xerogel which was pretreated at different temperatures of 700°C, 800°C, 900°C and 1000°C. For a comparative purpose, the steam reforming experiments were conducted under same operating conditions, i.e., reaction temperature of 600°C, atmospheric pressure and 1:6 glycerol to water molar ratio where we are getting 100% glycerol conversion in all the runs. The results showed that the hydrogen production increased with the increase in the treatment temperature of the support. The highest amount of hydrogen produced was attained over 10wt% Ni doped alumina xerogel pretreated at 1000°C. The catalytic enhancement over the best catalyst system is due to the thermal stability of the support which is treated at highest temperature. Sol gel method of preparation is implemented in the support development and different catalyst systems used in the reforming process were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, BET surface area and SEM analysis