Impact of alcohol on biodiesel production and properties

Abstract Due to rapid industrialisation and use of advanced technologies there has been increase in the consumption of fossil fuels, especially petroleum. Increasing needs are reciprocally proportionate to diminishing reserves of coal and petroleum. So, the exaggerated to be fulfilled and to curb the problem of increasing fuel prices; researchers are putting their efforts to produce an alternative fuel from replenish able resources on large scale. Biodiesel itself is proving to be a reliable and competent competitor to non-renewable petroleum which is being produced from commonly accustomed plants for instancerapeseed, soybean, sunflower and palm etc. But, complication is that it becomes a problem for in-availability of these oils for foods. Now non-edible raw materials oils such as Pongamia, Jatropha, Mahua, Moringa seed oil etc. have been used to raise the standard of these oils and being produced to complete the level of petroleum and be proven as the best resources for biodiesel production in all approaches both technically and economically. In this paper emphasis has been laid down to review the impact of higher alcohols, use of different raw materials for biodiesel preparation and effect of their composition on Oxidation Stability and Cold Flow properties. Moreover, various production technologies used to produce biodiesel were also reviewed and comparison was done among them for better yield. Further, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of higher alcohols on biodiesel yield and its properties. The study concludes that oxidation stability depends upon unsaturation mainly linoleic acid and lenolenic acid. Moringa olifera , Moroccan frying oil, Schleichera oleosa L. oil, Moringa peregeria are prospective oils as per oxidative stability characteristics. In contrast to it, cold flow properties depend upon saturation and suggests that having more saturated fatty acids result in poor cold flow properties.