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Abstract
Requirement of fuel is increasing as there is continues increases of automobiles. Fossil fuel availability is dwelling day by day. Biodiesel seems to be the solution for future since it is environmentally viable and readily available fuel. Several works have been carried out to produce biodiesel from edible oils and non edible oils and use it as a fuel for Compression Ignition (CI) engines. Non edible oils such as jatropha curcus, pongamia pinnata and edible oils, namely palm oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil and canola oil have been used to produce biodiesel fuel and lubricants. Biodiesel production from non edible oils is preferred compared to edible oils due to economic and social reasons and their availability. In this experimental work biodiesel is produced from the pongamia pinata by transesterification process and jatropha curcas oil by two-step transesterification process since Free Fatty Acid (FFA) content of this jatropha oil is found to be more than 3%. These processes result in conversion of about 93-96% of Pongamia Oil Methyl Ester (POME) and 90-95% Jatropha Oil Methyl Ester (JOME) from their respective oils. Important fuel properties of jatropha and pongamia oil methyl esters like viscosity, flash point, fire point, calorific value etc., were found out and compared to the properties of diesel.