Category Archives: Castor oil – Biodiesel

Castor biofuel a promising candidate for aviation services

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Evogene Ltd, an US based agri-biotech company has announced that castor plant proves to be viable alternate source for the production of biofuel(referred to as biojet) for the aviation services in the future.In a colloborative project work with NASA and Honeywell’s UOP technology, Evogene has made an evaluation of biojet produced from its castor varieties and reports that the oil has satisfied the fuel specifications of  ASTM D7566.It has declared that improved analytical tests will be conducted by NASA and US Air Force Research Laboratory further and points that the fuel from Castor would reduce green house gas emissions by 90% in comparison to fossil fuels.In the Castor Development Programme, the firm has decided to sell its product at US$ 45/Barell in future.

Rheological Behavior of Castor Oil Biodiesel

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From the ACS Publications – Energy Fuels, 2005, 19 (5), pp 2185–2188
Abstract
Viscosity, the measurement of the internal flow resistance of a liquid, constitutes an intrinsic property of vegetable oils. It is of remarkable influence in the mechanism of atomization of the fuel spray, in other words, in the operation of the injection system. This property is also reflected in the combustion process, whose efficiency depends the maximum power developed by the engine. This work aims at assessing the rheological behavior of castor oil, castor oil biodiesel, and undegraded and degraded biodiesel at different exposure times and temperatures. Castor oil biodiesel presents viscosity higher than diesel oil, but this drawback can be corrected by means of blends of both components at different proportions. The viscosity data indicated that the heat treatment leads to a degradation of the samples accompanied by an increase of the viscosity, probably because of interactions with intermediary compounds. The degraded samples presented a pseudoplastic behavior, once the flow index, m, is smaller than 1.

Thermoanalytical Characterization of Castor Oil Biodiesel – A Research Project

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See details of a project on ”  Thermoanalytical Characterization of Castor Oil Biodiesel” presented at ScienceDirect in Nov 2005

By: Marta M. Conceição, Roberlúcia A. Candeia, Fernando C. Silva, Aline F. Bezerra, Valter J. Fernandes, Jr. and Antonio G.Souza
Abstract
The castor oil seed has 47–49% of oil. Biodiesel obtained from castor oil has a lower cost compared to the ones obtained from other oils, as due its solvability in alcohol transesterification occurs without heating. The use of biodiesel will allow a reduction on the consumption of petroleum-derived fuels minimizing the harmful effects on the environment. This work wants to provide a thermoanalytical and physical-chemistry characterization of castor oil and biodiesel. Biodiesel was obtained with methyl alcohol and characterized through several techniques. Gas chromatography indicated methyl ester content of 97.7%. The volatilization of biodiesel starts and finishes under inferior temperatures than the beginning and final volatilization temperatures of castor oil. Biodiesel data are very close to the volatilization temperatures of conventional diesel.