Assessment of potential of oils for biodiesel production

In this study, the efforts are made to classify different oils on the basis of oxidation stability index (OSI), so that one can select the oils with high OSI for the production of biodiesel which do not require additives to enhance the fuel stability and the biodiesel quality would remain unchanged for the period of OSI and before that, the fuel is expected to be entirely utilized for engine operation. Based on American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D-6751 and European EN-14214 standard for OSI, the oils are classified into three main categories namely best, moderate and poor oils. As per this classifications, 19 non-edible and 19 microalgal oils are found as the best, 9 nonedible and 7 microalgal oils as moderate and 13 non-edible and 6 microalgal oils as poor oils. As per availability and OSI, the best oils can be recommended for the production of biodiesel which can be directly used for engine without any quality problem. This classification would help the biodiesel producers/industries to select oils that can be converted to biodiesel requiring no additives. While the biodiesels from other oil categories would require stabilisation using antioxidants and would be relatively costlier than the biodiesel from the best oils.