Physiochemical and Phase Behaviour Study of Jatropha curcus Oil - Ethanol Microemulsion Fuels Using Sorbitane Fatty Esters

Vegetable oil reverse micelle microemulsions have been an alternative method of biodiesel production to eliminate and avoid transesterification as well as unpurified glycerol. Sorbitane fatty ester surfactants due to their high solubilization capacity forms microemulsions with oils and thus span based reverse micelle microemulsion systems have been studied. Jatropha oil-ethanol microemulsions have been prepared using span 80 and 85 surfactants and optimized as biofuel, their phase behavior with physicochemical parameters: density, viscosity and surface tension were analyzed for formulation. The surface tension has been an important physicochemical parameter in addition to kinematic viscosity elucidating Jatropha oil-ethanol microemulsion with span 80 than with span 85, as a better biofuel. Comparatively, a lower amount of span 80 than span 85 was utilized for microemulsion formulations and resulted viscosities were in close agreement with ASTM biodiesel standards. The microemulsification approach has been found a sustainable method for producing biofuels without chemical reactions and their fuel properties have been adjusted through variable formulations.