An ever-increasing drift of energy consumption, unequal geographical distribution of natural wealth and the quest for low carbon fuel for a cleaner environment are sparking the production and use of biodiesels in many countries around the globe. In this work, jatropha and karanja biodiesels were produced from the respective crude vegetable oils through transesterification, and the different physical properties of the produced biodiesels have been presented and found to be acceptable according to the ASTM biodiesel specification standard. This paper presents the experimental results of the research carried out to evaluate the BTH, BSFC exhaust emission characteristics of jatropha and karanja blends in a single-cylinder diesel engine at different engine load. Comparative measures of brake thermal efficiency, smoke opacity, HC, CO, and NOx have been presented and discussed. Engine performance, in terms of higher brake thermal efficiency and lower emissions (HC, CO, NOx) with jatropha-based biodiesel (JB50) operation, were observed compared to karanja-based biodiesel (KB50).

The higher areal productivity and lipid content of microalgae and aquatic weed makes them the best alternative feedstocks for biodiesel production. Hence, an efficient and economic method of extracting lipid or oil from aquatic weed, Salvinia molesta is an important step towards biodiesel production. Since Salvinia molesta is an unexplored feedstock, its total lipid content was first measured as 16 % using Bligh and Dyer’s method which was quite sufficient for further investigation. For extracting more amount of lipid from Salvinia molesta, methanol: chloroform in the ratio 2:1 v/v was identified as the most suitable solvent system using Soxhlet apparatus. Based on the literature and the preliminary experimentations, parameters such as solvent to biomass ratio, temperature, and time were identified as significant for lipid extraction. These parameters were then optimized using response surface methodology with central composite design, where experiments were performed using twenty combinations of these extraction parameters with Minitab-17 software. A lipid yield of 92.4 % from Salvinia molesta was obtained with Soxhlet apparatus using methanol and chloroform (2:1 v/v) as solvent system, at the optimized conditions of temperature (85 °C), solvent to biomass ratio (20:1), and time (137 min), whereas a predicted lipid yield of 93.5 % with regression model. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis of S. molesta lipid using gas chromatograph mass spectroscopy (GCMS) with flame ionization detector showed that fatty acids such as C16:0, C16:1, C18:1, and C18:2 contributed more than 9 % weight of total fatty acids. FAME consisted of 56.32, 28.08, and 15.59 % weight of monounsaturated, saturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, respectively. Higher cetane number and superior oxidation stability of S. molesta FAME could be attributed to its higher monounsaturated content and lower polyunsaturated content as compared to biodiesels produced from C. vulgaris, Sunflower, and Jatropha.

The present study aims to study the effect of low viscous biofuel, namely pine oil (PO) and orange oil (O) blending with Jatropha methyl ester (JOME) along with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on NO-smoke tradeoff in a single-compression ignition (CI) engine. Two blends of pine oil and orange oil (30% by volume) with JOME were prepared and tested at 10%, 15%, and 20% EGR rates for various load conditions and compared with base fuels. JOME operation increased NO emission by 4% and reduced smoke opacity by 10% in comparison to diesel at maximum load condition. Poor physical properties of JOME, namely high viscosity and inferior volatility leads to reduced brake thermal efficiency with higher HC and CO emissions. Blends of JOME with low viscous biofuel reduces smoke emission with a further increase in NO emission in comparison to JOME as a result of combustion enhancement. Addition of EGR with JOME70 + PO30 and JOME70 + O30 aids in the reduction of NO emission with a slight increase in smoke opacity. Considering the NO-smoke tradeoff, JOME70 + O30 + EGR (10%) is optimum, NO emission is reduced by 14% and 11% in comparison to JOME and diesel and smoke opacity is reduced by 5% and 15% in comparison to JOME and diesel at maximum load, respectively.

This work aims to evaluate the removal of pharmaceutical drug using discarded biodiesel waste–derived lignocellulosic-based activated carbon biomaterial. Lignocellulosic-based activated carbon (LAC) biomaterial was prepared from Jatropha shell (biodiesel processing waste) by a zinc chloride activation method. The LAC biomaterial was characterized using various techniques including powder XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDAX, and BET analysis. LAC biomaterial was applied to examine the adsorption of sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) drug in aqueous solution under ambient temperature. Various experimental parameters such as the effect of pH, treatment time, adsorbate concentration, and LAC dose of adsorption experiments were thoroughly examined and optimized. Under the optimal conditions, LAC biomaterial showed the maximum adsorption removal efficiency of SMZ drug. The kinetic models of Lagergren first-order, pseudo-second-order, intraparticle diffusion, and Bhangam’s equation for SMZ removal onto LAC were used to recognize the probable mechanism of adsorption manner. From the experimental results, the Freundlich isotherm model (Kf = 83.56 mg g⁻¹ (L mg⁻¹)¹/ⁿ) shows similar fit than the Langmuir (Q₀ = 206.2 mg g⁻¹) and Dubinin-Radushkevich (Qₘ = 150.69 mg g⁻¹) condition models of adsorption isotherms. The rate constants of adsorption were found to confirm the pseudo-first-order kinetic and Bhangam’s models with a significant correlation. The separation factor (RL) showed the favorable condition of the adsorption isotherm for the experimental system. The desorption results indicate that the ionic molecular exchange of SMZ from the hydroxyl group of LAC surface plays an important role in the recycling processes. Therefore, these results proved that the prepared low-cost LAC biomaterial could be used as an efficient adsorption material for the effective removal of pharmaceutical drugs in aqueous samples.

The present work is dedicated to the experimental analysis on the influence of fuel-borne additives on ternary fuel blend operated in a single cylinder DI diesel engine. Alumina (Al₂O₃) nanoparticles were chosen as fuel additives at dosing levels of 10, 20, and 30 ppm, respectively, and the ternary fuel (TF) is prepared by blending 70% diesel, 20% Jatropha biodiesel, and 10% ethanol. Performance characteristics like brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and brake-specific energy consumption (BSEC) and emission characteristics like HC, CO, NOx, and smoke along with combustion characteristics like cylinder pressure, HRR (heat release rate), and CHRR (cumulative heat release rate) were considered for analysis. Based on experimentation, it is observed that TF blended with 20 ppm alumina nanoadditive (TF20) resulted in higher BTE and lowered BSEC by 7.8 and 4.93% and lowered HC, CO, NOx, and smoke emissions by 5.69, 11.24, 9.39, and 6.48% in comparison with TF. Moreover, TF20 resulted in higher cylinder pressure, HRR, and CHRR of about 72.67 bar, 76.22 J/°CA, and 1171.1 J, respectively, which are higher than those of diesel and TF. Hence, it is concluded that the addition of 20 ppm alumina nanoadditive in TF can enhance the engine performance and combustion as well as lower the exhaust pollutants simultaneously.