A comparative study over alternative fuel (biodiesel) for environmental friendly emission

The world´s energy consumption is estimated to be 3.36 × 10²⁰ J per annum and is projected to increase to up to 6.3 × 10²⁰ J in the year 2050. Due to the concern on environmental problems caused by the use of those fossil fuels, considerable attention has been given to biodiesel production as an alternative to petrodiesel. Biodiesel is advised for use as an alternative fuel for conventional petroleum-based diesel chiefly because it is a renewable, domestic resource with an environmentally friendly emission profile and is readily biodegradable. Hence, the recent focus is to find oil bearing plants that produce non-edible oils as the feedstock for biodiesel production. This paper aims at analyzing the preparation, physical and chemical properties such as acid value, fatty acid percentage, iodine value and sponification value, density, viscosity of Coconut, Palm, Sunflower, and Jatropha oil. It is seen that generally the plant species oil have low saturation and low polyunsaturation value but high mono saturated fatty acid for the production of biodiesel. On assessment it reveals that Jatropha oil has 44.7% of Oleic acid, 32.8% of Linoleic acid. From the study it is inferred that fatty acid is predominant in Jatropha oil. So it is suitable for the production of biodiesel.