PROCESSING OF BIODIESEL FROM CROTON SEEDS IN EGERTON

UNIVERSITY

CHELANGAT ROSALINE B11/10903/15

TSUMA JAMES B11/10897/15
MUNENE KELVIN B11/10899/15

Research project proposal submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering.

EGERTON UNIVERSITY
FEBRUARY 2020
 DECLARATION
This project is our original work and has not been presented for a bachelor degree or diploma
award in any University or institution.

Signature…………………… Date…………………………

CHELANGAT ROSELINE

REG NO: B11/10903/15

Signature …………………… Date …………………………

TSUMA MTANA JAMES

B11/10897/15

Signature…………………… Date…………………………

MUNENE KELVIN GITAU

B11/10899/15

Recommendation
This project proposal has been submitted for examination with my approval as a university
supervisor.

Patrick Wamalwa Date…………………………

Supervisor
Department of Agricultural Engineering Signature……………………
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Egerton University

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 ABSTRACT

In the current world, use of biodiesel has gained attraction due to vast exploitation of the non-
renewable petroleum fuel. Vegetable oil, plant oil and animal fats have been processed to
produce biodiesel. Croton megalocarpus is one of the plant species containing significant
amount of oil. The oil extraction from croton seeds and further processing to obtain biofuel
with optimum properties has remained a challenge. The biofuel obtained has high viscosity,
low calorific value and high moisture content. To use the oil in this state would cause
problems in some major parts of a diesel engine especially the fuel high pressure pump. The
project objective is to extract oil from them croton seeds, carry out esterification and trans-
esterification. A manual oil press will be used to press oil from the seeds, after which a
colorimeter will be used to test its heat value and a viscometer to test its viscosity. The oil
will be preheated by water bath at 60°c for one hour to remove traces of moisture. The oil
will then be taken through the process of acid catalyzed esterification by adding small
amounts of concentrated sulphuric acid (about 2ml) to a mixture of crude oil and methanol at
a ratio of 1:3. Potassium hydroxide will then be dissolved in the mixture at constant
temperature and stirred continuously to reduce viscosity. The biofuel is then washed in
separating funnel to remove traces of alkali, soap, and glycerin. The oil will then be blended
with significant amount of diesel to improve on heat value. The processed oil is then expected
to have a less viscosity, higher calorific value, and reduced ignition temperatures.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION...................................................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.....................................................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...............................................................................................................v
CHAPTER ONE....................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background..............................................................................................................................1
1.2 Problem statement..........................................................................................................................2
1.3 Objectives......................................................................................................................................2
1.5 Research Questions........................................................................................................................3
1.6 Justification....................................................................................................................................3
1.7 Scope and Limitation.....................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER TWO...................................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER THREE...............................................................................................................................6
MATERIALS AND METHOD.............................................................................................................6
3.1 Materials..................................................................................................................................7
3.2 Oil Extraction...........................................................................................................................7
3.3 Determination of saponification and acid value of croton oil and biodiesel.................................8
3.4 Optimization of reaction parameters for biodiesel preparation.....................................................8
3.4.1 Acid-catalyzed esterification..................................................................................................8
3.4.2 Base catalyzed transesterification...........................................................................................9
3.4.3 Biodiesel washing and drying.................................................................................................9
3.5 Properties of croton oil and biodiesel............................................................................................9
3.6 Blending of the Biofuel..................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER FOUR................................................................................................................................10
EXPECTED RESULTS.......................................................................................................................10
4.1 Expected Results..........................................................................................................................10
WORK PLAN....................................................................................................................................11
BUDGET...........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................13

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ICE Internal Combustion Engine
FFA Free Fatty Acids
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
HC Hydrocarbons
CMH Croton Megalocarpus Hutch

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 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Biodiesel is a renewable substitute fuel for petroleum diesel made from vegetable, oil plants
or animal fats through a transesterification process (Demirbas, 2007). Modern biodiesel fuel,
which is made by converting vegetable oils into compounds called fatty acid methyl esters,
has its roots in research conducted in the 1930s in Belgium, but today’s biodiesel industry
was not established in Europe until the late 1980s. Due to the widespread availability and low
cost of petroleum diesel fuel, vegetable oil-based fuels gained little attention, except in times
of high oil prices and shortages. After World War II and oil crisis, use of biodiesel have
emerged due to low supply of petroleum diesel (Skala & Glisic, 2004).

In Kenya, the consumption of energy is shooting up by the fact that it is one of the fastest
developing countries in Africa. Thus, petroleum is dominating the energy resource of the
modern sector of the economy. In Kenya, petroleum is rated second to biomass in terms of
total energy consumption, with wood leading as the highest source of energy (Mwarano,
2002).

Energy and economy are strictly inter-linked, and one affects the other to a great extent. The
growing Kenyan economy will demand much higher levels of energy consumption in the
form of liquid fuel, especially the transport sector, which has recorded a high rate of growth
over the past few years. Additionally, the dire need to protect the remaining vegetation cover
requires the substitution of fuel wood by liquid or gas fuels. The increased environmental
awareness and the constrained world’s petroleum supply also shift attention towards the
exploitation of alternative fuels for diesel engines.

Several alternative fuels have been invented and put into test; some of them include; natural
gas, hydrogen, electricity, vegetable oil, alcohols, local plant oils, among many others.
Methyl esters (biodiesel) prepared by transesterification of the oils from these plants have
been tested and evaluated in different countries, especially U.S.A, Italy, Austria, and France.
In Kenya, there is no clear, authentic report which clearly outlines the exploitation of any
specific biodiesel which is a result of inadequate infrastructure and legal framework; denying
the farmers the technical capacity to process the oil (Ndegwa et al., 2011). To sustain
ourselves in the fuel economy, it is inevitable to study the biodiesel from the available
Kenyan plants having oil plants.

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Currently, the main crops used for biofuel production include; rapeseed (Europe), soybeans
(US), Jatropha (Africa, India), Castor bean (Africa, China and S. America), palm oil
(Tropical areas), coconut, Brazil nuts, jojoba, peanuts, cotton seeds and sunflowers (Gafni,
2017).

In this study, the use of Croton megalocarpus Hutch as a source of feedstock for the
preparation of biodiesel has been evaluated. Croton megalocarpus is an indigenous plant
species that are found in Kenya and many other sub-Saharan countries. The plant is locally
available at Egerton University in vast quantity, and it has not yet been put to any utilization.
The seeds from this plant are reported to have an oil content of 30% and a protein content of
50%. The products from the plant are not edible, and hence its utilization to produce biofuels
will not create a negative impact on the food economy. Croton megalocarpus is considered to
be a rich plant when well exploited, and being locally available in research institutions, it
should be an area of interest for energy production.
Oil extracted from croton seeds is taken through preheating, esterification, and
transesterification process. The processes assist in moisture removal and break down of long
chains of FFA to small alky ester.

1.2 Problem statement

Croton megalocarpus is a plant species with resourceful product from its seeds. The plants
are lying unused especially in Egerton University; the seeds fall from the tree, decay and
eventually become unutilised waste. The seeds are rich in oil content and at the same time the
seeds are not edible; creating no food competition when the oil from seeds are used for fuel
production. The seeds need to be dried and pressed to produce oil. The direct crude oil
obtained from the seeds is of low quality compared to the petroleum diesel in the market.
Recently researches have been conducted on the methods of improving these properties, but
the specific blending ratio has not yet been established. An evaluation should be done
practically to mix the oil with diesel in the right proportion to come up with perfect fuel.
1.3 Objectives
To process biodiesel from local croton seeds in Egerton University.
1.4 Specific Objectives
1. To extract oil from the seeds using manual oils press.
2. To trans-esterify the crude oil to reduce moisture content and reduce viscosity.

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 3. To blend the biofuel with diesel to improve the heating value, to produce biodiesel,
that can be used efficiently in an ICE.

1.5 Research Questions

i. What is the maximum amount of oil that can be derived from the croton seeds through
the manual pressing process?
ii. To what extent can the viscosity be varied by taking the oil through the
transesterification process?
iii. What amount of diesel should be blended with specific amount of croton biofuel to
enhance the fuel heating value?

1.6 Justification
Production of biodiesel from croton seeds in Egerton University will put into use the wasted
resources. The croton megalocarpus hutch is a well performing plant in the area yet the seeds
go into waste during the fruiting season. Extraction of oil from the croton seed will utilise the
rich resources. Croton megalocarpus is also non edible plant species and hence its use for fuel
production will cause no effect in the food economy. With biodiesel production, per capital
income to the farmers investing on CMH will increase hence improving their livelihood.
Setting up biodiesel production firms will also create employment to the community and
professions.

1.7 Scope and Limitation

The research study and evaluation will be conducted at the engineering workshop and
chemistry laboratory. We will extract oil from croton seeds, take the crude oil through
esterification and transesterification process, and after that, blend it with diesel and evaluate
its performance in an ICE.
The study is limited to the oil production process from croton seeds in Egerton University.
The study manual oil extraction is limited to the equipment available in the engineering
workshops.

The fruiting of CMH is seasonal and hence implying that the production will not be
consistent throughout the year.

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 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The working and research of Ayadi et al., (2016) on biodiesel production indicates the
production of biodiesel dated back in 1890 when Rudolf diesel invented the diesel engine.
Peanut seeds were pressed to produce oil. The oil produced was use directly in the engine by
the fact that the engine was designed to run on the biofuels. The engines were powered by
vegetable oils, animal fats, or waste vegetable oils. After the demise of Dr. Diesel, petroleum
fuels became available.
In Asia, Sarin et al., (2010) worked on palm seeds to produce biodiesel. To reduce food
competition, by the fact that palm is edible, they blended the palm oil with bio biodiesel
synthesized from tree borne non edible oil seeds; jatropha and pongamia. Examination of
cold filter plugging point of palm diesel was done and it was observed to improve after the
blending. The correlation of cold filter plugging point and total unsaturated fatty acid methyl
esters was determined. Their working came into a conclusion that the CCPF of the biodiesel
can be easily estimated using correlation. Also, blending of the palm oil with non-edible plant
oils minimizes food plant competition and so stabilization of food economy.
Md. Hossain et al., (2012) emphasized the demand for the diesel fuel, because the fuel
diminishing year by year. The alternate solution is search for a new fuel. So the author used
the coconut oil with different propositions and found the optimal mix of coconut oil with
diesel. The performance was carried out with a single cylinder diesel engine. So in this work
also the single cylinder diesel engine is used to test the performance of the engine. Andrea
Kleinova and Jan cvengros (2011) demonstrated the performance of the engine with the
diesel ethanol blending. The paper finally concludes that the relative density and the viscosity
of the fuel depend on the temperature and the blending should be done such a way that the
density and viscosity should be less than the diesel.

A.W. Wagatu et al., (2009) did a research on indigenous crops that can produce biodiesel in
Kenya. They conducted an analysis on oils from four crops, that is, Jatropha curcas, Croton
megalocarpus Hutch, Calodendrum capense Thunb and Cocos nucifera (coconut). They did
an analysis on the viscosity, density, cetane number, flash point and some other chemical
properties. A comparison was done against petrol and diesel and they concluded that the oils
have energetic content close to conventional diesel fuels and hence the plants are a promising
source of alternative renewable fuel.

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N. Yilmaz and M. Byron (2011) examined the effect of preheating oils on performance and
emissions characteristics of two diesel engines. They researched on peanut, canola and
sunflower oils. They came into a conclusion that preheating effect was significant in thermal
efficiency, they also realized reduced NO and HC emissions.

W.O. Osawa et al. (2014) from the University of Nairobi extracted oil from croton seeds by
mechanical pressing. They then prepared biodiesel from the oil through a two stage process.
The oil was taken through an esterification process and later a transesterification process. The
optimum conditions established in this study were temperatures of 50°C and 60° foe
esterification and transesterification respectively. The final parameters were determined after
the whole process and a reduced viscosity and density was obtained. The conclusion was that
the two stage process greatly improved the fuel properties of croton oil in terms of acid value,
density and viscosity.

From the researches carried, there still exist undefined problem, that is, “the heating value of
the oil is still low and hence low power production and problem with cold starts.” The
biodiesel thus needs to be further processed to enhance these properties.

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 CHAPTER THREE
MATERIALS AND METHOD

The research and production will be conducted at Egerton University in the Engineering
workshop and Chemistry laboratory. Egerton University is located in Nakuru County, Njoro
Constituency and Njoro Ward, 0°22’11.0” S, 35°55’58.0” E. The university is located 25km
southwest of Nakuru. The Engineering workshop and chemistry department is located 1km
from the main gates on the way to tatton hostels opposite to the faculty of arts and social
sciences.

Fig 3.1 Egerton university loaction map

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iii.1 Materials
The materials to use include; croton seeds, sulphuric acid, methanol and potassium
hydroxide. Seeds will be collected from the croton megalocarpus tress, in which the mature
seeds have already fallen and are collected from the ground. All the chemicals used for
processing are in the chemistry lab where the process optimization (esterification and
transesterification) will be done.

The equipments that will be used in the production process are; manual oil press, thermostatic
biodiesel reactor, viscometer and separating fuel. The manual oil press used in the
engineering workshop has an adjustable clearance in for letting through the seedcakes and
hence making it efficient for pressing variant sizes of seeds.

iii.2 Oil Extraction

Figure 3.2: manual oil

press
Croton megalocarpus fruits will be collected at the Egerton University compound. The fruits
will be sun-dried for some days with reference to initial moisture content. The fruit will then
be decorticated manually to remove the outer shell, after which the seeds will be further dried
for two days. The oil will be extracted from the dry seeds using a mechanical pressing
machine. The oil will be filtered using filter bags to remove solid impurities then stored in
clean, dry air-tight containers.

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3.3 Determination of saponification and acid value of croton oil and biodiesel
The saponification value of croton oil will be determined using the method described by
Vogel, (1989), while the acid value of both the oil and biodiesel will be determined using a
method published by the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS), (1980).

3.4 Optimization of reaction parameters for biodiesel preparation

Due to the high free fatty acid content of croton oil, the biodiesel will be prepared through a
two-stage process, which involved acid-catalysed esterification of free fatty acids followed by
base-catalysed transesterification of triglycerides. The process will be employed to prevent
soap and emulsion formation, which causes difficulties in biodiesel/glycerol separation and
removal (Canakci and Van Gerpen, 2001). Both esterification and transesterification
reactions will be carried out in a thermostatic biodiesel reactor equipped with a mechanical
stirrer. The reactor temperature is kept constant using a heated oil bath. The oil will be heated
first at 60 °C for one hour to remove traces of moisture. The reaction conditions will be
optimized by varying parameters such as temperature, time, and quantity of catalyst and mole
ratio of reagents. The settings will be varied one at a time while keeping the others constant,
and their effects will be determined in duplicates and the mean values recorded.

3.4.1 Acid-catalyzed esterification

The effect of a concentrated sulphuric acid catalyst on esterification of free fatty acid (FFA)
will be determined by adding different volumes of acid to a mixture of croton oil and
methanol in a biodiesel reactor. The amount of methanol required to react completely with
FFA in croton oil will be calculated from the acid value. Since the esterification reaction is
reversible, an FFA: methanol ratio of 1:3 will be used to shift the equilibrium to the right and
improve the yield of ester. Small amounts of 99% pure methanol will be added to different
portions of 100 g of croton oil in a reactor and mixed for 5 minutes. A graduated pipette will
be used to add different volumes of 98% concentrated sulphuric acid to each mixture. The
mixture will then be continuously stirred while maintaining the temperature constant. The
acid value of the organic layer will be tested after regular intervals of time in duplicates, and
the mean values recorded. Similarly, the effect of temperature on the rate of esterification will
be determined using a particular acid volume at different temperatures

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3.4.2 Base catalyzed transesterification
The effect of base catalyst, Potassium hydroxide (KOH) and volume of methanol on the rate
of transesterification of croton oil was investigated by separately varying the mass of base or
volume of methanol added to different portions the reaction mixture containing 100 g croton
oil and determining their effects on the % yield of biodiesel relative to the mass of croton oil.
The KOH was dissolved in methanol then added to the reaction mixture in a biodiesel reactor
at constant temperature and stirred continuously. The effects of temperature and volume of
methanol on the rate of transesterification were also investigated by separately varying the
temperature and amount of methanol and determining their effects on the % yield of
biodiesel.

3.4.3 Biodiesel washing and drying

The biodiesel was repeatedly washed in a separating funnel with approximately 150 ml
portions of warm water (45°C) to remove traces of alkali, soap, and glycerin until clear water
separated. After each washing, the layers were allowed to settle for between 30 minutes to
one hour, after which the lower layer will be drained out. The volume of biodiesel was
accurately measured, and the mean % yield recorded. The biodiesel was transferred into a
clean bottle where it was dried with fused silica gel for 24 hours. The dry biodiesel was
finally filtered into dry plastic containers with air-tight lids.

3.5 Properties of croton oil and biodiesel

The properties of croton oil and biodiesel were determined using standard methods and
apparatus. The values obtained were compared with both the recommended American
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) values and those of petro-diesel. The equipment
used for determination of the physical-chemical properties included Pensky Martins Flash
Point Cup Apparatus (DM 93), density meter (DM 300), Pour and Cloud point apparatus,
Fungilab viscometer (V300003) connected to the thermostatic water bath and Bomb
calorimeter.
3.6 Blending of the Biofuel
The biodiesel will be blended with varying amounts of diesel fuel. The properties will be
measured by testing the heating value. The amount of diesel added to one litre of biodiesel
for optimum heat value will be determined and recorded.

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 CHAPTER FOUR
EXPECTED RESULTS
4.1 Expected Results
The final product of the biofuel is expected to have improved properties compared to the
crude oil from biodiesel. That is;
i. Obtaining unprocessed croton oil.
ii. Obtaining processed biodiesel with the following properties:
i. Reduced biodiesel viscosity.
ii. Reduced biodiesel density
iii. Higher calorific value
iv. Lower ignition temperatures

WORK PLAN
YEAR 2019 2020
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Activity/Month S O N D J F M A M
Concept development
Literature review
Concept note presentation
Proposal presentation
Experimental set up
Data collection and analysis
Report writing
Report submission
presentation

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 BUDGET

S. No ITEM ITEM UNITS OF QUANTITY UNIT TOTAL

DESCRIPTION ISSUE COST
(Ksh)
1. Methanol Chemical 2.5 L 2.5L 1800
1800

2. Sulphuric acid Chemical 1L 1L 1450 1450

3 Potassium Chemical(pellets) 500g 500g 1300 1300

hydroxide
4 Fused Silica Pellets 500g 500g 4100 4100
gel
5 Lab Testing Labour 9000 9000
cost
17,650
GRAND
TOTAL

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