Mustard oil, an alternative fuel: An experimental investigation of Bio-diesel properties with and without Trans-esterification reaction

A. K. Azad^1*, S. M. Ameer Uddin², and M. M. Alam³

^1,2,3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.

*Corresponding Author: E-mail:azad_sgfl@yahoo.com

Accepted 14 June 2012

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigates of the bio-diesel preparation from vegetable oil i.e. mustard oil. First time, the bio-diesel has been prepared by trans-esterification reaction or chemical process and blend in different proportion with diesel fuel. Again, without trans-esterification reaction, the mustard oil has been blended with diesel in different proportion of 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% and named as bio-diesel bland B20, B30, B40, and B50. The properties of the fuel i.e. density, viscosity, dynamic viscosity, carbon residue, flash point, fire point and calorific value of pure mustard and its blends have been carried out in the fuel testing laboratory. During the fuel and bio-fuel have been tested in the laboratory, different ASTM standards were maintained to find out the properties of the bio-diesel. The comparisons were made between the blended bio-fuels which was prepared with or without trans-esterification reaction.

Keywords: Heating value; Density; Dynamic viscosity; Specific gravity; Flash point; Fire point.