Title: Liquid biofuels from tree borne seed oils for automotive diesel engines

Authors: N. Vedaraman; Sukumar Puhan; K.C. Velappan

Addresses: Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai-600 020, India. ' GKM College of Engineering and Technology, Perungalathur (near Tambaram), Chennai-600 063, Tamilnadu, India. ' Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai-600 020, India

Abstract: India is having great potential for tree borne seed oils such as Mahua, Neem and Sal and out of which Sal and Mahua alone deserves commercial importance. Only a small fraction of these seeds were utilised and the rest is left behind as waste in the forest. This paper describes biodiesel preparation from these oils, their performance and emission in direct injection diesel engine. The test results show that the brake thermal efficiency is almost similar to that of the diesel. The various exhaust emissions such as CO, HC, and NO_x were low compared to that of diesel. Appropriate initiatives in increasing the seed collection and additional plantation of these trees will certainly increase oil availability and use of these oils for biodiesel manufacture, will ensure sustainable source of energy for transportation and thereby minimising environmental pollution.

Keywords: biodiesel; engine performance; engine emissions; Neem oil; Mahua oil; Sal oil; tree borne seed oils; liquid biofuels; direct injection diesel engines; brake thermal efficiency; exhaust emissions; sustainable energy; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2012.050356

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2012 Vol.12 No.3, pp.223 - 231

Published online: 20 Aug 2014 *

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