CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A SCREW PRESS MACHINE TO EXTRACT JATROPHA OIL

Utilization of biofuel produced from Jatropha oil represents one of the most promising options for the use of conventional fossil fuels.Biofuel via biodiesel, a promising substitute as an alternative fuel has gained significant attention due to the predicted shortness of conventional fuels and environmental concern.Experiments were carried out through two successful agricultural seasons of 2016 and 2017 at Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture Zagazig University to constract and evaluate the performance of a screw press machine suitable for Jatropha seeds.The performance of the screw press was estimated under four different machine capacity and four different seed moisture contents.The performance of the screw press was evaluated taking into consideration oil yield, extraction efficiency, specific energy and operational cost.The experimental results represented that the highest value for each of oil yield and extraction efficiency was 43 kg.hr. - and 81%, respectively and also the values of specific energy and operational cost were 258 kW.hr.Mg -1 and 1229 LE.Mg -1 , respectively at moisture contents of 12% and machine capacity of 166 kg.hr.