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Dwindling petroleum reserves and alarming level of air pollution has been an issue of great concern in recent times and researchers across the world are experimenting on variety of renewable fuels for meeting the future energy demands. Within the gamut of alternative fuels, biofuels are the most promising and have the potential to mitigate climate change and lease a new life to existing IC engines. The vegetable oils are having immense potential in this context and have been used either in neat or modified form by large number of researchers. Jatropha curcus is a perennial plant and bears non edible oil. The plant is drought tolerant and has been cultivated all over the arid and semi-arid areas for reforestation. In the present study, blends of jatropha oil and ethanol have been prepared in 5, 10, 15 and 20% (v/v) and evaluation of important properties of blends has been carried. The results show that properties are quite similar to diesel fuel.

Due to high energy demand and limited availability of fossil fuels, the energy necessity becomes a point of apprehension as it results in hike of fuel prices. It is essential to develop renewable energy resources while considering the impact on environment. In the last decade, demand of alternative fuels has increased a lot. Therefore, researchers have already started working on the aim of developing a green fuel to overcome the future energy demand. And as we know that the biodiesel is generally prepared from the non-edible and renewable resources thus, it can be among the competitive alternative future fuels. Besides that, it does not require any prior engine modifications for its usual advantage among other alternative fuels while using it within certain boundaries. However, the process biodiesel production is in itself time consuming which increases the cost of production while decreasing the yield.

Non-edible vegetable oils have a huge potential for biodiesel production and also known as second generation feedstock’s. Biodiesel can be obtained from edible, non-edible, waste cooking oil and from animal fats also. This paper focuses on production of biodiesel obtained from mixture of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) oil and neem (Azadirachta indica) oil which are easily accessible in India and other parts of world. Neem oil has higher FFA content than sesame oil. Biodiesel production from neem oil requires pretreatment neutralization procedure before alkali catalyzed Trans esterification process also it takes large reaction time to achieve biodiesel of feasible yield. Neem oil which has very high FFA and sesame oil which has low FFA content are mixed and this mixture is Trans esterified with no pre-treatment process using molar ratio of 6:1.Fuel properties of methyl ester were close to diesel fuel and satisfied ASTM 6751 and EN 14214 standards.

The use of alternative fuel has many advantages and the main ones are its renewability, biodegradability with better quality exhaust gas emission, which do not contribute to raise the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The use of non-edible vegetables oils as an alternative fuels for diesel engine is accelerated by the energy crisis due to depletion of resources and increase in environmental problems. In Asian countries like India, great need of edible oil as a food so cannot use these oils as alternative fuels for diesel engine. However there are many issues related to the use of vegetable oils in diesel engine that is high viscosity, low calorific value, high self-ignition temperature etc. Jatropha curcas has been promoted in India as a sustainable substitute to diesel fuel. This research prepared micro emulsions of ethanol and Jatropha vegetable oil in different ratio and find out the physico-chemical parameters to compare with mineral diesel oil.

Depleting fossil energy reserves and large scale debasement of the environment has been grabbing headlines for some time now. Biodiesel has been proven by researchers to produce less CO, HC and PM, albeit higher NOx as compared to diesel. The present study was carried out with blends of Karanja - a type of Leguminosae plant abundant in India - that produces non-edible seed oil analogous to Jatropha. An exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system was employed to encumber the higher NOx emissions produced with biodiesel. Performance and emission characteristics of Karanja biodiesel blend (KB20) with EGR rates of 0, 5, 10, 15 & 20% were compared with baseline data of diesel. The results show that adaptation of EGR with KB20 reduces NOx emissions without any penalty on smoke opacity or BSEC.

Diesel Engines are widely used in transportation, industrial and agriculture sectors worldwide due to their versatility and ruggedness. However, they also emit harmful emissions detrimental to human health and environment. Apart from environmental degradation, the perturbation in international crude oil prices is also mandating use of renewable fuels. In this context, vegetable oils such as Jatropha Curcas due to their carbon neutral nature and widespread availability, seems to present a promising alternative to the mineral diesel. Straight vegetable oils (SVO) are not recommended for direct diesel engine application due to their higher viscosity, poor volatility etc. and dilution of straight vegetable oil may effectively enable its direct application in unmodified diesel engines. In the present study, Jatropha oil was diluted with n-Butanol to improve the fuel properties of the blend.

India possesses only 0.3% of world petroleum reserves and hence heavily dependent upon petroleum derived fuels to feed its rapidly growing economy. Diesel Engines due to their superior performance have wide application in India, however, they also pollute environment significantly. Research is underway in India and elsewhere to explore the potential of variety of alternative fuels which could substitute diesel in a holistic manner. And in this context, non-edible vegetable oils are very promising as India has a large area of degraded land where such crops could be raised without compromising food security. Large number of studies have suggested that vegetable oils are not suitable in neat form as a fuel in diesel engine and should be trans-esterified using either methanol or ethanol to form esters to bring their properties similar to diesel fuel.

The rising cost and exponential depletion of crude oil in international market has provided an opportunity for the researchers to evaluate the utilization and suitability of various renewable fuels. Amongst variety of alternative fuels, biofuels have the potential to mitigate the vulnerability and the adverse effects of use of fossil fuels. Vegetable/plant oil is better proposition as alternative fuel for diesel engine having much advantage over other alternative fuels. Orange oil from its peel has a huge potential and can be used as an alternate fuel at the most economical purchase rate. In the present investigation experiments were carried out to evaluate performance and emission characteristics of Orange peel oil methyl ester blends (OPOME) (10%, and 20% by volume) on unmodified diesel engine. The properties of these blends were found to be comparable to diesel and confirming to both the American and European standards.

Rapid depletion of fossil fuels is urgently demanding an extensive research work to find out the viable alternative fuel for meeting sustainable energy demand without any environmental impact. In the future, our energy systems will need to be renewable, sustainable, efficient, cost-effective, convenient and safe. Therefore, researchers has shown interest towards alternative fuels like vegetable oils, alcohols, LPG, CNG, Producer gas, biogas in order to substitute conventional fuel i.e. diesel used in compression ignition (CI) engine. However, studies have suggested that trans-esterified vegetable oils retain quite similar physico-chemical properties comparable to diesel. Besides having several advantages, its use is restricted due to higher emissions i.e. NOx, CO, HC and deposits due to improper combustion. Hence, there is a need of cleaner fuel for diesel engines for the forthcoming stringent emissions norms and the fossil depletion.

In the past few decades, use of energy resources in industrial and transportation sector have reached to its peak resulting in depleting resources and environment squalor. Vegetable oils, which have properties comparable to diesel fuel, are considered promising alternative fuels for unmodified diesel engines. However, high viscosity of vegetable oils is a major challenge which could be reduced by blending with alcohols. The aim of the present study was to investigate the suitability of orange peel oil and n-butanol blends as an alternative fuel for CI engine. Various blends of butanol with orange peel oil were prepared on volumetric basis and named as B10OPO90 (10% n-butanol and 90% orange peel oil), B20OPO80 (20% n-butanol and 80% orange peel oil), B30OPO70 (30% n-butanol and 70% orange peel oil) and B40OPO60 (40% n-butanol and 60% orange peel oil). All blends were found homogenous and various physico-chemical properties were evaluated in accordance to relevant standards.

The rising cost and limited availability of crude oil in international market has provided an opportunity to look for substitute of fossil fuel. Scientists all over the world are experimenting on variety of renewable fuels for meeting the future energy demands. Bio origin fuels are fast becoming potential alternative resources to replace the fossil fuels. The vegetable oils, derived from oil seed crops have got 90 to 95% energy value of diesel on volume basis, comparable cetane number and can substitute upto 20% (v/v) of diesel fuel. Mahua seed oil is common ingredient of hydrogenated fat. Two-step transesterification process was employed to synthesize biodiesel from Mahua Oil (Madhuca-indica) and analysis of Physico-chemical properties as well as the combustion, performance and emission characteristics was done by taking 10, 20 and 100 % blend with diesel. The physico-chemical properties of the blends were found to be comparable to diesel.

Biodiesel production has been getting global awareness since Petroleum prices are escalating continuously. As biodiesel is gaining considerable demand, standards are vital for its commercialization and market introduction. Feedstocks availability has posed serious challenges, thus the need for non-edible and unexplored feedstocks has risen. In Indian context, Biodiesel is produced using sal seed oil which is potentially available in Indian forest as a non-edible feedstock. The present paper deals with the production optimization using design of experiments and fuel property characterization of Sal biodiesel (sal methyl esters). Transesterification process parameters like catalyst concentration (% w/w), Oil to Methanol molar ratio, reaction time (min) and reaction temperature (°C) were considered the significance factors and the response was taken as the Yield (% w/w). Experiment matrix with several combinations of factors was generated.

The world today is facing severe oil crisis and environmental pollution, thus there is a great urgency of developing and applying bio based products as a substitute to mineral oil based products. Rapid industrialization and automation in the last decade has increased the demand of mineral oil based lubricant that will get exhausted in the years to come. Also in addition to the above fact, the biodegradability of mineral-oil based lubricants is around 25% maximum. About 50% of all lubricants sold worldwide end up in the Environment. Due to extensive use of mineral oil based lubricants, several environmental issues such as surface water and groundwater contamination, Air pollution, soil contamination, agricultural product and food contamination are emerging very rapidly. This has led the researchers to look for plant oil based bio- lubricant as an alternative to mineral oil based lubricant.

Biodiesel from non-edible vegetable oils is of paramount significance in India due to insufficient edible oil production. The present work deals with relatively underutilized non-edible oil “Schleichera oleosa” or “Kusum”. The Kusum biodiesel (KB) was produced using a two stage esterification cum transesterification process as the free fatty acid content of the oil was high. Important physico-chemical properties were evaluated and they were found to conform with corresponding ASTM/EN standards. Various test fuels were prepared for the engine trial by blending 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of KB in diesel by volume and were named as KB10, KB20, KB30 and KB40 respectively. The results showed that full load brake thermal efficiency was dropped by 3.8% to 17% with increase in KB composition in the test fuel. Diesel (D100) showed the maximum full load brake specific energy consumption followed by KB10, KB20, KB30 and KB40.