Abstrakt

Performance and Emission of Pongamia Pinnata Oil as a Lubricant in Diesel Engine

Nirmal.V.P, Dineshbabu D

Vegetable oils are perceived to be alternatives to mineral oils for lubricant base oils because of certain inherent technical properties and their biodegradability. Vegetables oils with high oleic contents are considered to be the best alternative to substitute conventional mineral oil-based lubricating oils and synthetic esters. Most of the vegetable oils have high contents of unsaturated fatty acid and can be converted into epoxy fatty acid by conventional epoxidation. Nowadays epoxidized vegetable oil is having great concern as they obtain from sustainable, renewable natural resource and are environmental friendly. This project work mainly reveals about extraction of oil from dry pongamia seeds and study of its composition, physico-chemical properties and lastly its modification into triesters to improve the oxidation and cold flow behavior by epoxidation process. To produce epoxidized pongamia oil, the epoxidation was carried out by conventional chemistry at 50°C, speed of 550 RPM, and atmospheric pressure for about 10 h. An excess amount of hydrogen peroxide was necessary in the reaction to achieve high reaction conversion. By using this epoxidized oil the viscosity, viscosity index, flash point seems to be better for lubricant application.