An Investigation Performance of Citronella oil Distillation with Solar Energy by Bubble Pump Technique

Abstract

This research studied the efficiency of distillation of essential oil from citronella grass by solar energy using bubble pump technique. Comparing the total amount of citronella essential oil by normal distillation and economic analysis to evaluate the production cost of citronella essential oils. The experiment using citronella water 40 liters by using solar collector is 2.2 square meters, 14 degrees incline, and maintain the level of citronella water range at 80%. The experiment start from April, 2018 until May, 2018 under the climate of Nakhon Pathom province. The result from the experiments found that the highest amount of essential oil is distilled is in the first day of the experiment is 73.80 ml with the maximum solar intensity of 1,027.97 W / m and the total amount of essential oil that was distilled is 590.84 ml. The comparison by using solar energy with bubble pump technique found that the total amount of essential oils that were distilled has increased by 36.95% and economic analysis showed that the production cost of citronella essential oil is 60.43 baht per liter.