Experimental Study of Citronella Oil Extraction by Solar Distillation Using Bubble Pump Technique

Abstract

Citronella oil is a popular essential oil widely used to repel mosquitoes because it's safe, residue-free, and environmentally friendly. Therefore, this research aims to study the feasibility of extracting citronella oil by solar distillation using a bubble pump technique. The results of the study included the amount of essential oils and the cost of production. The experiment was conducted for 10 days during April and May 2018 in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand. In the distillation process, the 40 liters of chopped lemongrass juice contained 80% lemongrass by weight. The solution flows through the solar collector. The area is 2. 2 m² with a 14- degree inclination angle. The results showed that the amount of radiation arriving from the sun was not constant. The average value of solar intensity was 884.98 W/m² at 81.3^oC. Under this condition the maximum was 73.80 ml/day (average was 59.084 ml/day), and the amount of essential oil was 590. 84 ml. For economic analysis, it was shown that the production cost of citronella essential oil was 60.43 THB/liter or 1.86 USD/liter (1 THB = 0.0308 USD). In addition, the total amount of essential oils distilled from solar energy using bubble pump techniques increased compared to conventional distillation by 36.95%.