Evaluation of the moisture content of Jatropha curcas kernels and the heating value of the oil-extracted residue using near-infrared spectroscopy

• The first evaluation of moisture of Jatropha kernels by NIRS on whole grain basis.
• The first evaluation of heating value of oil extracted residue by NIRS.
• Fiber and cellulose of kernels notably effect NIRS evaluation of heating value.

The use of near-infrared spectroscopy for evaluation of moisture content of Jatropha curcas kernels and heating value of its residue after oil extraction were studied. In total, 100 samples of whole kernels from green, yellow and black fruits and oven-dried kernels scanned in diffuse reflection mode using a Fourier transform NIR spectrometer at wave numbers of 1,250,000–400,000 m−1 were used to develop moisture-predicting models. The corresponding residues after the oil extraction of the samples scanned in transflection mode using the same spectrometer and wave number range were used to develop the heating-value-predicting models. The models correlating the spectral data and the corresponding values measured using the reference method were developed by partial least squares regression and were validated using a test set. For the moisture content and heating value, coefficients of determination (R2) were 0.969 and 0.860, root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) were 4.0% wb and 360 J g−1, biases were −0.7% wb and −17 J g−1 and ratios of prediction to deviation (RPD) were 5.7 and 2.6, respectively. In addition, vibration bands of fibre and cellulose had important effects on the prediction of the heating value.