Nano emulsion petrol using diethanol amide methyl esters synthesized from jatropha curcas L. oil / Muhamad Nor Syafik Yahya

This research is about formulation of nano emulsion petrol (NEP) using an additive that has been synthesized from crude Jatropha curcas l. oil (CJO). Basically, NEP is a biofuel which composed of commercial petrol as main component, small portion of water and the additive as emulsifier. Currently, there are numerous of biofuel technology that have been developed either as fuel blending component or direct replacement to fossil fuel. Emulsion technology was found to be a future prospect fuel. However, there are few challenges in developing a sustainable and green technology emulsion petrol. First, there were not many additive in the marketplace were derived from non-edible feedstock. Secondly, emulsion fuel that currently developed has short shelf-life and easily destabilized. Thirdly, emulsion fuel has only certain improvement on greenhouse gas emission reduction. In order to address this, the objectives of this research were to synthesis a non-ionic surfactant from crude Jatropha curcas oil, to study the emulsion stability index (ESI) and also to compare the emission of greenhouse gas (GHG) respective to commercial petrol. Crude jatropha oil (CJO) was derived into fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) before achieved to final product which was diethanol amide methyl ester (DEAME). All the structural elucidation of the three compunds were analysed by GC, FTIR, 1H and 13C NMR. The hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) value of DEAME was calculated at 8.311 which categorized as wetting and spreading agent but still considered as water-in-oil (w/o) type emulsion (below than 10) according to HLB scale. Both micellar and DEAME were premixed at 1 to 10 g/ml to determine the critical micelle concentration (CMC) during formulation of NEP. CMC of NEPs was computed by surface tension at 20, 30 and 40°C. By using ternary phase diagram, NEP was formulated following the PAW rule whereby the dictation of the formulation begin with percentage of petrol, additive followed by water. Out of 36 samples, 4 samples taken for further studies which were NE811, NEP721, NEP622 and NEP523. Morphological structure for each NEPs were analysed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and particle size analyser (PSA) and observed for 10 consecutive months. The mode diameter for NEP811, NEP721, NEP622 and NEP523 for the first month were 11.70 nm, 10.1 nm, 6.503 nm and 8.721 nm. Emulsion stability index (ESI) for NEPs was determined using volumetric and backscattering method from month 1 to 10. Simple combustion test was conducted to measure the greenhouse gases (GHG) emission release for all NEPs. The combustion shown a substantial dropped of emission in unburnt hydrocarbon (CHx), carbon oxide (COx), sulphur oxide (SOx) and particulate matter (PM10) for all NEPs except for nitrogen oxide (NOx) compared to unmodified petrol.