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Diesel fuel blends with biodiesels are expected to mitigate the rising price and demand of conventional fuels. Biodiesel fuel blends are also known to reduce engine emissions. Biodiesel is produced from various sources, one of which is Calophyllum Inophyllum methyl ester biodiesel (CIMEBD). Even though it serves to mitigate the energy crisis and has a low overall carbon footprint, CIMEBD has certain negative issues relating to engine performance and emission characteristics. Nanoparticle (NP) addition is known to enhance the engine performance characteristics of next generation biofuels. CeO₂ (cerium oxide or ceria) NPs of varying size are used in this study along with 25:75 biodiesel–diesel (BD) blend and a fixed NP concentration of 90 ppm. Ceria NP-doped fuel is shown to have better engine performance compared to diesel and BD blend for all load conditions. Improvements in brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) values equal to +30% and −46%, respectively, are observed from experiments for ceria NP-doped biodiesel, compared to diesel–biodiesel (BD) blend. Ceria NPs in the 20 to 40 nm range have optimum engine performance characteristics. Compared to BD blends, NP-doped biodiesel shows improvements in NOx, CO, CO₂, UHC, and soot parameters up to −35%, −60%, −35%, −38%, and −40%, respectively. Likewise, the optimum size of ceria NPs is in the range 20–40 nm for better emission characteristics. Full article

Nowadays, increased interest among the scientific community to explore the Calophyllum inophyllum as alternative fuels for diesel engines is observed. This research is about using mixed Calophyllum inophyllum-palm oil biodiesel production and evaluation that biodiesel in a diesel engine. The Calophyllum inophyllum–palm oil methyl ester (CPME) is processed using the following procedure: (1) the crude Calophyllum inophyllum and palm oils are mixed at the same ratio of 50:50 volume %, (2) degumming, (3) acid-catalysed esterification, (4) purification, and (5) alkaline-catalysed transesterification. The results are indeed encouraging and satisfy ASTM D6751. CPME shows the high heating value (37.9 MJ/kg) but low kinematic viscosity (4.50 mm²/s) due to change a higher proportion of shorter-chain and unsaturated FAMEs, which tend to lower viscosity compared to Calophyllum inophyllum methyl ester (CIME).). The blended fuels exhibit higher brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and NO_x emissions, along with lower brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and reduced CO and HC emissions compared to diesel fuel across the entire range of speeds. Among the blends, CPME5 offered better performance compared to other blends fuel ratios. Full article

In recent years, the beauty leaf plant (Calophyllum Inophyllum) is being considered as a potential 2nd generation biodiesel source due to high seed oil content, high fruit production rate, simple cultivation and ability to grow in a wide range of climate conditions. However, however, due to the high free fatty acid (FFA) content in this oil, the potential of this biodiesel feedstock is still unrealized, and little research has been undertaken on it. In this study, transesterification of beauty leaf oil to produce biodiesel has been investigated. A two-step biodiesel conversion method consisting of acid catalysed pre-esterification and alkali catalysed transesterification has been utilized. The three main factors that drive the biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)) conversion from vegetable oil (triglycerides) were studied using response surface methodology (RSM) based on a Box-Behnken experimental design. The factors considered in this study were catalyst concentration, methanol to oil molar ratio and reaction temperature. Linear and full quadratic regression models were developed to predict FFA and FAME concentration and to optimize the reaction conditions. The significance of these factors and their interaction in both stages was determined using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The reaction conditions for the largest reduction in FFA concentration for acid catalysed pre-esterification was 30:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 10% (w/w) sulfuric acid catalyst loading and 75 °C reaction temperature. In the alkali catalysed transesterification process 7.5:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 1% (w/w) sodium methoxide catalyst loading and 55 °C reaction temperature were found to result in the highest FAME conversion. The good agreement between model outputs and experimental results demonstrated that this methodology may be useful for industrial process optimization for biodiesel production from beauty leaf oil and possibly other industrial processes as well. Full article