Prospects of biodiesel from Pongamia in India

Pongamia is forest-based tree containing non-edible oil and has a large production potential of biodiesel which can grow on any type of soil, needs minimum input and management, have low moisture demand, productive life is more than 40 years and seeds have 28-34% oil content. Biodiesel yield of 99% is obtained from Pongamia oil by transesterification under the molar ratio of 6:1 of alcohol to oil with Sodium hydroxide as a catalyst of 0.5 vol% and operating temperature of 60 °C with time for production process being 1 h. The study shows that brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency of B20 biodiesel from Pongamia is quite comparable to diesel. The hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide gas emissions are quite low in case of Pongamia biodiesel as compared to diesel. This paper describes the various aspects of Pongamia as potential fuel in India.