Mahua Biodiesel: An Alternative to Conventional Diesel Fuel

Abstract

Energy is the basic need to any nation’s growth. Due to energy crisis whole universe is struggling with many issues like fossil fuels are losing ground drastically, demand for energy is ever increasing, concerns to the climate changes & high energy prices are putting us on our toes in the search of alternative and cleaner fuel sources which is the biggest challenge to the energy industry & various nations. As a substitute of conventional diesel fuel, biodiesel fuel is made from renewable resources and it also has non toxic and biodegradable nature. Our country i.e. INDIA has many potential for the production of biodiesel from the seeds of edible and non edible oils. Out of many variants of oil seeds, only some variants are tested till the time. Many researchers studied on the properties part of biodiesel fuel that has shown that it is completely miscible with conventional diesel fuel. A unique property of biodiesel over conventional diesel fuel is that biodiesel releases particulate matter and gases. Amongst the potential sources of non edible oils of India, Mahua has shown very bright prospects. This paper shows the past and current progress along with other types of biodiesels, the characteristics, processing and economics available to Biodiesel industry and also it’s their respective application part to automotive industry. The current paper fairly shows the studied comparison of conventional diesel fuel and Mahua biodiesel usage in view of its performance and exhaust characteristics parameters.