This is a well known fact that the resources of mineral oils are depleting day-by-day, and the cost of exploration of the remaining reserves is bound to escalate. Moreover, the burning of fossil fuels increases the level of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere causing the 'Green House' effect. In this context, aviable and sustainable alternative fuel is necessary to cater to a large fleet of automobiles across the world. The advent of biodiesel has come to the rescue in such a warranting situation. Efforts are being made to streamline the systems to produce biodiesels at economically viable rates and apply them in running the diesel engines in lieu of petro-diesel. And the present study is an attempt in this direction. It seeks to exploit non-edible oil plants, especially Jatropha, mahua and palm, to replace diesel oil usage in the conventional diesel engines. Providing transesterification procedure for all the three non-edible oils, it deals with the heat release rate calculations based on the pressure data collected in the combustion chamber. It also extends discussion on the instrumentation and experimentation, as well as the results of the findings.

About the Author

Dr. G. Ravi Kiran Sastry is a Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering in Chaitanya Engineering College, Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh. Dr. Sastry did his M. Tech (Thermal Engineering) in Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and was awarded his PhD from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam with a specialization in alternative fuels for I.C. Engines. Dr. Sastry has huge teaching as well as Research experience. Dr. Sastry is an ardent researcher in the area of finding alternative fuels as a replacement to commercial fuels especially biodiesels of non-edible oils such as Jatropha, Mahua and Palm Kernel oils. Dr. Sastry has a good number of research paper contributions in national as well as international journals/conferences in the thrust area of the performance of D.I. Diesel engine using Biodiesels.

Table of Contents:
Transesterification Procedure -- Heat Release Rate Calculations -- Experimental Set Up -- Results, Discussion and Conclusions