Determination of phorbol ester content in Balanites aegyptiaca and use of enzymatic-catalyzed biodiesel in diesel engine

ABSTRACT

The present study deals with the estimation of toxic phorbol esters in Balanites aegyptiaca seed cake and evaluation of the performance and combustion characteristics of different blends of biodiesel in a diesel engine. Seeds were manually collected from arid regions of Rajasthan, India, and the oil extracted from the powdered kernel via a solvent extraction process. The extracted oil was processed by enzymatic catalytic reactions carried out at optimum reaction conditions. The total conversion rate of Balanites aegyptiaca oil to methyl ester by enzymatic-catalyzed transesterification was up to 98.3%. A performance and combustion study of the test fuel blends (BA10 and BA20) with pure diesel (D100) was carried out in a single-cylinder, four-stroke, water-cooled and computer-based VCR diesel engine at a constant speed (1500 rpm). The performance and combustion parameters such as BP, BTE and CP decreased, whereas BSFC and DP increased, with biodiesel blends.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiesel
• phorbol ester
• seed cake
• enzymatic transestrification
• performance and combustion characteristics

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the University College of Engineering, Kakinada, JNTUK KAKINADA for economic assistance through Procs. No. TEQIP-II/Mech/R&D/Academics/SC 1.2-3(v)/2015-16.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the TEQIP [grant number Procs. No. TEQIP-II/Mech/R&D/Academics/SC 1.2-3(v)/2015-16].