Comparative study of different biodiesel-diesel blends

Diesel and biodiesel have their own advantages and disadvantages. Blending biodiesel with diesel could help in countering few disadvantages of the earlier. Biodiesels were processed from different waste cooking oils such as used coconut oil, groundnut oil, palm oil and sunflower oil. These methyl esters were blended with diesel and the variations in their properties such as density, flashpoint and kinematic viscosity were studied. Blending helped in pulling down the flashpoints and viscosities of methyl esters processed from cooked groundnut oil (WGME), palm oil (WPME) and sunflower oil (WSME) within the limits that qualify them as biodiesels. Insignificant changes in their densities due to blending were observed. Among the four methyl esters and their blends, waste coconut methyl esters (WCME) were found to possess better properties, comparable to diesel, making it the best one to be blended with diesel. This signifies the importance of WCME-diesel blend as a future fuel.