Study of linseed oil biodiesel as an alternative fuel and its petroleum characterization of various blends with diesel

Abstract

Methyl ester prepared from linseed oil is a good alternative fuel for petroleum diesel. India stands third in the production of linseed crop and hence it has great potential of being a great source of alternative fuel. Transesterification process was used for the production of the biodiesel from linseed oil. The blends of this ester with petroleum diesel fuel can be useful if the optimum percentage of alkyl ester blended in diesel considering all basic petroleum properties fulfilment so that there will be no problem for smoothly running in the diesel engine without modification and also useful in proper saving of diesel fuel. The increase in blend percentage leads to reduction in the percentage of polluted exhaust gases those are not environment friendly. This is the big advantage of use of biofuel as an alternative fuel. For various blends of diesel fuel and methyl ester, its petroleum properties such as kinematic viscosity, density and specific gravity were studied whereas other important properties such as ASTM Distillation temperatures study, pour point determination, diesel index evaluation, aniline point calculations, fire point and flash point studies were experimentally done and those petroleum characteristics was compared with the diesel fuel.
Keywords: Aniline Point, Diesel Index, Kinematic Viscosity, Linseed Oil, Transesterification