Analysis of oils extracted from vegetable seeds for their suitability as biofuels

During recent years high activities can be observed in the field of alternative fuels, due to supply of petroleum fuels strongly depends on a small number of oil exporting countries. Biodiesel and alcohol are being considered to be supplementary fuels to the petroleum fuels in India. These biofuels are being looked to provide employment generation to rural people through plantation of vegetable oils. In this context, in the present study it is decided to determine the fuel property of dried seeds of selected plants; these seeds are otherwise thrown away in the garbage in the normal Indian household. Investigations were made into some basic properties of five different types of seeds obtained from different plants. Oil content of these seeds was determined to check their suitability for commercial extraction. Information on the physical properties (yield, density, viscosity, saponification number, iodine number, acid value, free fatty acid content) of the seeds was recorded. Among the tested seeds, cucumber seed was shown very good properties than other seeds.

Author(s): Dandavathi Arunkumar, Pereira Nevil Francis and Seranthimata Samshuddin

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