Jatropha curcas as a renewable source for bio-fuels—A review

Fatty acid methyl ester derived from renewable lipid feedstock is popularly known as biodiesel, the substitute for petroleum based diesel fuel. The non-food oils such as Jatropha (Jatropha curcas), Karanja (Pongamia pinnata), waste cooking oil, by-product of vegetable oil refineries are the cheap feedstock for cost-effective production of biodiesel. Jatropha may be one of the most promoted oilseed crop throughout the world due to higher oil yield, suitable fatty acid composition of the oil, adaptability to diverse agro-climatic condition and low gestation period. The current article discusses the updated research and development initiatives undertaken for the study of chemical composition of Jatropha oil, techniques for synthesis of biodiesel using homogeneous catalyst, heterogeneous catalyst, enzymes (lipases) and non-catalytic supercritical process to obtain Jatropha based biodiesel satisfying ASTM 6751, EN 14214 and IS 15607 specifications.