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Karanj oil having high free fatty acid was neutralized with a dilute alkali solution and then mixed with soybean oil in different ratios in order to reduce the free fatty acid content significantly. The mixture of the oils was then transesterified with methanol to produce fatty acid methyl ester. The transesterification was carried out using ultrasonication energy of 20 kHz in pulse mode. It was found that up to 60% Karanj oil in the blended mixture could produce good quality biodiesel that met the ASTM standards. However, the lesser content of Karanj oil in the mixture, the lesser the reaction parameters viz. alcohol to oil molar ratio, catalyst concentration, and reaction time. About 99% yield of methyl esters was obtained when the Karanj oil content in the mixture was 20% with a reaction time of 30 min, catalyst concentration 1 wt%, and a temperature of 55°C.

A comparative study has been carried out on the performance of compression ignition engine (CI) using common diesel fuel (CDF) blended with both refined soybean (Glycin max) and sunflower (Helianthus annus) oil as straight vegetable oil (SVO) as well as their corresponding fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) with respect to CDF. Low cost methyl esters of vegetable oil were prepared using own patented technique where ultrasonic energy has been found to be beneficial. SVOs and corresponding FAMEs were blended with CDF separately at different proportion to act as fuel for research CI engine. Both engine performance and fuel combustion characteristics were evaluated from the present study at different loads with varying compression ratios. Graphical relationships of load (kg) in engine against various engine performance parameters such as: brake thermal efficiency (%), brake specific fuel consumption ((kg/kWh), brake mean effective pressure (bar), cumulative heat release (kJ) and emission characteristics have been plotted for each set of fuels with respect to CDF. The relationship developed identifies the advantages of using blended FAME prepared with the patented processes over their corresponding SVO and CDF in the CI engine.

A novel process has successfully been developed by overcoming major difficulties through the elimination of number of process steps involved in the Classical