Production and Characterisation of Biodiesel from Non-edible Oils

Biodiesel production is a very modern and technological area for researchers due to the relevance that it is winning every day because of the increase in the petroleum price and the environmental advantages. At present, biodiesel is mainly prepared from conventionally grown edible oils such as rapeseed, soybean, sunflower and palm, thus leading to alleviate food versus fuel issue. Hence, the recent focus is to find non-edible oils as the feedstock for biodiesel production. In this study, locally available six non-edible oils [cotton seed oil (Gossypium hirsutum), linseed oil (Linum usitatissimum), pongamia oil (Pongamia pinnata), neem oil (Azadirachta indica), madhuca oil (Madhuca indica) and jatropha oil (Jatropha curcas)] are selected as source for biodiesel production. The transesterification of selected oils were carried out by alkali, acid and enzymatic method. The cotton seed biodiesel shows highest density (1.03 g/m³) produced from enzymatic transesterification method. The viscosity is highest for neem oil biodiesel (5.37 mm²/s) produced from enzymatic transesterification method. Madhuca biodiesel shows highest acid value (0.7 mg KOH/g) produced from enzymatic transesterification method. Iodine value is highest for linseed biodiesel (134 g/100 g) produced from alkaline transesterification, and cetane is highest for jatropha biodiesel (64) produced from enzymatic method.