Development of Models For The Prediction of Flash Point, Cloud Point and Pour Point of Blends of Jatropha and Karanja based Biodiesel with Diesel

Abstract

Fast depletion of natural resources has caused fuel prices to in- crease and thus consumers and entrepreneurs are looking for biofu- els to reduce their dependence on foss il fuels. Biodiesel is now seen as a promising and sustainable alternative source of fuel. It is biodegradable and nontoxic has low emission when compared with the conventional fossil - based diesel fuel. In spite of it being envi- ronmentally compatible it ha s certain limitations, such as lower cloud point causes it to freeze at cold climatic conditions, while study of flash point is important for safety reasons, making it diffi- cult to use it commercially. In the present work, Flash point, Cloud point and Pour point of Jatropha and Karanja based biodiesel and blends of biodiesel with petroleum diesel fuel were determined ex- perimentally by the use of Pensky - Marten ’ s Flash point apparatus and Digital Cloud point and pour point apparatus with refrigerated compartm ents. Prediction models for these properties were devel- oped using regression analysis using minitab software. These re- gression models were checked for their consistency and were found to be accurate of these biodiesels.