Bio-diesel-a Sustainable Energy Resources Made from Non-edible Oils

Bio-diesel the mono-alkyl esters of vegetable oils can serve as sustainable energy resources alternative to depleting fossil fuels and has gained more importance due to its clean environmental benefits, renewability and biodegradability. The proposed paper highlights the results of experimental investigations on the scope of utilizing biodiesel manufactured from Polanga and Jatropha oils as an alternative diesel fuel ( IS:1460/2005) used in Indian Railways(IR). Due to its high free fatty acid contents ( FFA ),bio-diesel can be effectively made in multistage esterification processes using sulphuric acid as acid catalyst and potassium hydroxide as base catalyst. The production of both the bio-diesel was optimized and the effect of molar ratio of methyl alcohol to oil, reaction time, catalyst amount and reaction time were optimized during the transesterification process. To judge the quality of bio-diesel as per IS:15607/2005, different experimental investigations such as viscosity, flash point, density and calorific value etc were carried out and compared it with diesel, several blends of bio-diesel with diesel and near bio-diesel. The flash point and viscosity of bio-diesel produced from polanga oil were found to be better than the bio-diesel produced from Jatropha oil. The engine performance characteristics such as brake specific energy consumption, brake thermal efficiency and exhaust gas temperature were evaluated for different fuel blends. Exhaust gas emissions such as Carbon monoxide ( CO) , Total Hydrocarbons( HC),and smoke opacity were also recorded. Results show that both the bio-diesels and bio-diesel-diesel blends can be serve as a feasible sustainable alternative and they can be used in diesel engines without major modification in engine hardware.