Website created by Colin Wood and Tristan Sandhu

Application/Future Experiments

Application

The main practical application for this is that it can easily be used in tropical climates without any additives. But it can also be used in cold climates like Canada with the additives that have been tested in this project. The best combination for Canada’s cold climate is the combination of Jatropha biodiesel, ethanol and Powerservice diesel additive.

Future experiments

Transesterification

Methanol is typically used in the transesterification process because it allows the lighter methyl esters to separate from the heavier glycerol. Our process did not involve methanol instead we used ethanol. We could have also used a combination of methanol and ethanol because they are proven to increase the rate of the transesterification process. A way to obtain biomethanol is after the extraction of oil from the Jatropha seeds. Once the oil from the seeds has been extracted, the seed cake can be used to make methane (CH₄) which can then be made into methanol. The process of converting methane into methanol involves the use of a platinum based catalyst. The methanol can then be used in the transesterification process.

Cloud point

There are many new technologies to measure the cloud point, which will allow you to find a precise measurement of when the solution turns to a gel. It would be a very good idea to test out the Jatropha, ethanol and diesel additive in one of the cloud point machines to receive an accurate cloud point.

Flash point

Our test for flash point was not the most effective way for testing the flash point of the solutions. There are many different ways, some of which require more advanced equipment which we did not have access to. In the future it would be ideal to test the Jatropha, ethanol, diesel additive and Wintron XC30 solution because through our flash point tests this solution gave the fastest flash point. This would have been helpful because it would have allowed us to find the exact moment at which the solution started to burn.