**5. Acknowledgment**

240 Biodiesel – Feedstocks and Processing Technologies

properties of No. 2 Diesel, JCL biodiesel and ASTM D6751 derived biodiesel standards is

**JCL biodieselb**

**ASTM D6751a**

**JCL Biodiesel (This study)** 

**Diesela**

Specific gravity 0.85 0.86 to 0.87 0.87 to 0.90 0.87

(cSt) 1.9 to 4.1 4.23 to 5.65 1.9 to 6 5.27 Cloud point (°C) -19 to -8 8 to 10.2 Report -2.06 Pour point (°C) -34 to -10 4.2 to 6 -15 to 10 0 Flash point (°C) 51 to 85 130 to 192 130 min 100 Calorific value (MJ/kg) 45.0 to 45.3 38.5-42.7 41.0 39.3

The properties of biodiesel produced from this in-situ supercritical methanol transesterification were comparable with fuel properties of commercial No. 2 Diesel. It was found that specific gravity of JCL biodiesel was 0.87 g/cm3 and it falls between the ASTM D6751 ranges. Fuel injection equipment operates on a volume metering system, hence a higher density for biodiesel results in the delivery of a slightly greater mass of fuel (Demirbas, 2005). The kinematic viscosity was 5.27 cSt. Among the general parameters for biodiesel the viscosity of FAMEs can go very high levels and hence it is important to control it within an acceptable level to avoid negative impacts on fuel injector's system performance (Murugesan et al., 2009). The flash point was determined to be at 100 °C. Since biodiesel has a higher flash point than diesel, it is a safer fuel than diesel. Addition of a small quantity of biodiesel with diesel increases the flash point of diesel which can result in improved fire safety for transport purpose (Lu et al., 2009) and it is safer to store biodiesel-diesel blends in comparison to diesel alone (Sahoo et al., 2009). Meanwhile, the pour point was measured to be 0 °C which was slightly higher than that of No. 2 Diesel fuel. This might be due to the presence of wax, which begins to crystallize with the decrease in temperature. This finding was agreed with Vyas et al., (2009) and Raheman and Ghadge, (2007). The problems of higher pour point of JCL biodiesel could be overcome by blending with diesel. The cloud point was reported to be -2.06 °C. The cloud point depends upon the feedstock used and must be taken into consideration if the fuel is to be used in cold environments (Fernando et al., 2007). The calorific value of JCL biodiesel was 39.3 MJ/kg, which was almost 88% of the calorific value of diesel (44.8 MJ/kg). The lower calorific value of JCL is because of the presence of oxygen in the molecular structure, which is confirmed by elemental analysis also. Furthermore, the presence of oxygen in the biodiesel helps for complete combustion of fuel in the engine. These findings were also agreed by Sinha et al., (2008). Therefore, they

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that temperature is an important property in this in-situ process. As the temperature increased, the crude biodiesel and FAMEs yields also increased. The crude biodiesel and FAMEs of the yields reached a maximum (59.9 and 97.9,

shown in Table 6 for comparison.

Kinematic viscosity @ 40 °C

aDemirbas, (2008); Encinar, (2005); Vyas, (2009)

**Properties No.2** 

bGhadge and Rehman, (2005); Vyas, (2009); Sahoo and Das, (2009) Table 6. Fuel properties of No. 2 Diesel and JCL biodiesel.

could be excellent substitutes and blends of No. 2 diesel fuel.

**4. Conclusions** 

The authors ackonowledge the scholarship fund provided by Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovative under the National Science Fellowship (NSF), Universiti Teknologi MARA and Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS grant no: 600- RMI/ST/FRGS 5/3/Fst (2/2009)) for their financial support.
