Production of Biodiesel From Used Mustard Oil and Its Performance Analysis in Internal Combustion Engine

Decline in fossil fuel resources along with high crude oil prices generated attention toward the development of fuel from alternate sources. Such fuel should be economically attractive and performance competent in order to replace the fossil fuel. Mustard oil from Indian mustard, Brassica campestris, is commonly used for cooking in Indian households and restaurants. Cooking produces spent mustard oil waste, which is generally drained as garbage. We explored the possibility of using such spent mustard oil for making biodiesel. Transesterification of spent oil was carried out using methanol and sulfuric acid (95%) as catalysts followed by bubble washing. Clear biodiesel was obtained from esterified oil after five bubble washings. Methyl ester formations were calculated by measuring its density at $15°C$ and viscosity at $40°C$ and were found to be $89g/cm3$ and $4.83mm2/s$⁠, respectively. Studies on engine performance were conducted using a Prony brake internal combustion (IC) diesel engine using various blending ratios of biodiesel with commercial diesel. The fuel blends were evaluated for parameters such as speed of engine, fuel consumption, and torque against pure diesel. Brake power, specific fuel consumption, and thermal efficiency were also measured. The results indicate that dual fuel with a blend of 8% biodiesel yielded good efficiency in the IC-diesel engines without the need for making any modifications in the engine.