Thermophysical properties of biodiesel and related systems: Low-pressure vapour–liquid equilibrium of methyl/ethyl Jatropha curcas biodiesel

Biodiesel production from non-edible oils has been considered in recent years due to their economic, politics and environmental aspects. Vapour–liquid equilibrium data for the pseudo-binary and pseudo-ternary systems involving fatty acid methyl/ethyl esters from Jatropha curcas oil were determined over the pressure range from (6.7 to 66.7) kPa in an Othmer-type ebulliometer. All systems presented non-ideal behaviour and positive deviations from Raoult’s law. It was observed that the addition of up to 10 wt.% of alcohol (methanol or ethanol) promoted a significant decrease in the boiling point temperatures for the evaluated systems. The UNIQUAC model was used to correlate the experimental values, with good agreement between experiment and model results.

► Boiling point temperatures for Jatropha curcas FAME and FAEE in the pressure range of (6.7 to 66.7) kPa.
► Investigated systems presented a non-ideal behaviour, with positive deviations from Raoult’s law.
► Experimental data satisfactorily represented by the UNIQUAC model.