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Global warming in relation to fossil fuel pollution and their environmental impacts have become a major global concern. Biodiesel has entered the scene as an alternative fuel but it also generated controversy associated with increased residual fuel, increased acidity, oxidation, and corrosion. The main objective of this study was to observe the corrosion behavior of the mild steel immersed in J50C50 biodiesel-diesel fuel blends for up to 800 h at ambient temperature. The results showed corrosion rate at 800-h immersion are 0.0103, 0.0044, 0.0117, 0.0155, 0.2283 and 0.02524 mm/year, respectively, for B0, B10, B20, B30, B40 and B50. Mild steel coupon surface observation using SEM showed corrosion attacks are characterized by round holes on the metal surface. The addition of J50C50 biodiesel into diesel fuel accelerated the corrosion rate and acid value. Overall, corrosion observations conducted on mild steel suggested J50C50 biodiesel-diesel fuel blend is more corrosive compared with diesel fuel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Non‐edible oil such as Jatropha oil has high free fatty acids (FFAs) content. Therefore, acid esterification is a suitable route to reduce its FFA content to an acceptable limit (2 FFA%) before being subjected to further transesterification. In the present study, Jatropha seeds were utilized as the feedstock directly instead of Jatropha oil during ultrasound‐assisted in situ esterification. The objective of this work is to evaluate the feasibility of in situ esterification of Jatropha oil seeds using sulphuric acid (H2SO4) as catalyst with the aid of ultrasound. RESULTS: The reaction parameters (particle size, n‐hexane to methanol volume ratio, H2SO4 amount, reaction time and ultrasonic amplitude) were optimized and evaluated in term of extraction and esterification efficiencies as well as fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield. The highest extraction efficiency of 83.96%, esterification efficiency of 71.10% and FAME yield of 38.58% were achieved at particle size of 1–2 mm, n‐hexane to methanol volume ratio of 3:1, 5 vol% of H2SO4 and ultrasonic amplitude of 60% with reaction time of 150 min. CONCLUSION: Synthesis of biodiesel via ultrasound‐assisted in situ esterification of Jatropha oil seeds was successful with considerable yield, which could provide improvement in terms of process intensification and more value added by‐products. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limitation of fossil fuel sources and negative environmental impact persuade scientists around the world to find a solution. One possible solution is by using renewable fuel to replace fossil fuel with an inexpensive, fast, and effective production process. The objective of this study is to investigate the biodiesel production from crude Reutealis trisperma oil using the conventional and the ultrasonic bath stirrer method through the esterification and transesterification process. The result shows that the most effective reaction time with an optimum condition for the esterification and transesterification of Reutealis trisperma oil is at 2 h 30 min by using the ultrasonic bath stirrer method. The optimum conditions at a temperature of 55 °C for the esterification and at 60 °C for transesterification with 2% (v/v) of sulphuric acid with catalyst concentration of 0.5 wt.% were a methanol-to-oil ratio of 60%, and agitation speed of 1000 rpm. This optimum condition gives the highest yield of 95.29% for the Reutealis trisperma biodiesel. The results showed that the ultrasonic bath stirrer method had more effect on the reaction time needed than using the conventional method and reduced half of the conventional method reaction time. Finally, the properties of Reutealis trisperma biodiesel fulfilled the ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 biodiesel standards with density, 892 kg/m3; pour point, −2 °C; cloud point, −1 °C; flash point, 206.5 °C; calorific value, 40.098 MJ/kg; and acid value, 0.26 mg KOH/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]