Press tests with Jatropha seeds were conducted at the Pilot Pflanzenöltechnologie e.V. Magdeburg. Different seeds from South East Asia (India, Laos, and Vietnam) were pressed on a Komet Monforts S87G oil press. The maximum temperature of the produced oil was lower then 55 C.

Temperature control during pressing operation

The press cake was sandy and had an oil content of approximately 16 %.

The degree of oil recovery differs between the utilized Jatropha seed in a range around 71 – 76%. Therefore, the oil content of the press cake was around 12 – 14%. The amount of solid material was quite high in all pressed seeds and ranged between 13 to 19 %. Normally the amount of solid material should be around 2-4%. In total that means an oil production rate of approximately 20 – 26%. Therefore, it can be said that it is possible to produce one liter of oil, with four kilogram of seeds.

The phosphorus content differs in a wide range of the utilized material. According to the DIN standard V 51605, there is just 12 ppm of phosphorus allowed. The analyses showed values between 4.8 and 164 ppm. According to these results, it can be said that the source seed material shows a huge difference in quality. If the seed material is stored under bad conditions or the seed material is infected through insects or micro organism, phosphorus content can increase dramatically.

Cold pressed and filtered Jatropha oil from different sources of seeds.

The acid value differs also in a wide range from 2.5 to 20. Compared to the DIN standard which allows only a value lower than 2, this was quite high. Moreover, the fatty acid spectrum was analyzed and surprisingly it did not differ much between the different seed material.

Fatty acid composition of the produced cold pressed oil.

Further studies should be undertaken to verify these results with other seed material and different press parameters.