摘要
Biodiesel （fatty acid methyl ester） has been identified as a non-toxic biodegradable alternative fuel that is obtained from renewable sources. Over the last decade, there has been increasing interest in producing biodiesel from conventional sources such as soybean, canola, sunflower, and coconut oils. Current efforts are directed towards the development of new non-edible resources. Among these Jatropha Curcas comes at the forefront. In Egypt, Jatropha Curcas has grown successfully using primary treated wastewater. Also, extensive R＆D efforts identified the optimum conditions for the various processing stages namely crushing, extraction, transesterification and purification. Based on the research findings, the techno-economic appraisal of biodiesel production from Jatropha Curcas is conducted. Two nominal capacities namely 8,000 and 50,000 metric tons/yr have been proposed. Several scenarios have been formulated to take into consideration varying productivity （3.4 to 5.8 ton fruits per 4,000 m^2 （acre）） and varying recovery rates of oil from seeds. Economic indicators including capital and production costs for the various processing stages and revenues according to current prices of oil and cake have been obtained. The price of biodiesel that provides a simple rate of return （SRR） on investments of 10% was in the range of $0.3-0.7/liter for the different assumed scenarios which is lower than the prevailing price of biodiesel （about $1/liter） in the US. Thus, in view of experimental results and economic assumptions, there are positive prospects for the production of biodiesel from Jatropha Curcas under Egyptian conditions.
