Some physical properties and oxidative stability of biodiesel produced from oil seed crops

Biodiesel is a cleaner burning fuel than petrodiesel and a suitable replacement in diesel engine. It is produced from renewable sources such as vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel fuel was prepared from castor (CSO), palm kernel (PKO) and groundnut (GNO) oils through alkali transesterification reaction. The biodiesel produced was characterized as alternative diesel fuel. Fuel properties such as specific gravity, viscosity, calorific (combustion) value, The CSO, PKO and GNO were measured to evaluate the storage/oxidative stability of the oils to compare them with commercial petrodiesel. The biodiesel produced had good fuel properties with respect to ASTM D 6751 and EN 14214 specification standards, except that the kinematic viscosity of castor oil biodiesel was too low. The viscosity of castor oil biodiesel at different temperatures was in the range of 4.12-7.21 mm(2)/s. However, promising results which conformed to the above specification standards were realized when castor oil biodiesel was blended with commercial petrodiesel. At 28 A degrees C the specific gravity recorded for CSO, PKO and GNO biodiesel was higher than the values obtained for petrodiesel. Commercial petrodiesel had the highest oxidative stability than biodiesel produced from CSO, PKO and GNO oils.