48. Theoretical Study of Jatropha and Other Vegetable Oils as Biodiesel Fuel for Internal Combustion Engines

Biodiesel is an alternative environmental friendly fuel produced from renewable bio resources like Jatropha and other vegetable oils. In developed countries the biodiesel is produced from Soybean, Sunflower, Peanut, etc., which are essentially edible in Indian context. On the other hand there is a vast resource of non-edible oilseeds such as Jatropha, Karanja, Mahua, Pongamia, etc., which can be grown in waste land. Oils derived from these seeds can be subsequently developed into appropriate biodiesel which can partially cater the domestic energy needs, create employment opportunities in rural areas and also reclaim the waste lands. Exhaustive experimental investigations on evaluation of biodiesel for performance, emission and combustion characteristics on internal combustion engines have proved its potential. Esterification has been found to be a very effective technique to prevent some long-term problems associated with utilization of neat vegetable oils such as fuel filter plugging, injector choking, formation of carbon deposits in combustion chamber, ring sticking, contamination of lubricating oils, etc. Long-term endurance tests show that biodiesel can be adopted as an alternative fuel for the existing conventional diesel engines without any major modifications. This paper describes about some of the promising non-edible oilseeds which have great potential for production of biodiesel and also employment generation in India.