Investigation of Fuel Properties of Neem Biodiesel and Its Blends with Diesel

In this present work, neem biodiesel was produced from neem oil through a two-step process of esterification and transesterification reactions. The first step of acid catalysed esterification reduced the free fatty acid content of neem oil. The second step of base catalysed transesterification process converted the pretreated neem oil to neem biodiesel. Neem biodiesel is blended with diesel at various proportions. The fuel properties such as density, viscosity, flash point, and fire point of neem biodiesel (B100), B25, B50, B75 were determined experimentally and compared with diesel (B0). The experimental results showed that the density, kinematic viscosity, flash point and fire point of diesel fuels are lower than the biodiesel. Therefore, the density, kinematic viscosity, flash point and fire point of the blend increases with the increase of biodiesel concentration.