Among the biomass-based fuels, plant oil esters hold a good promise as an alternate fuel for compression ignition (CI) engines, especially during periods of diesel shortage. Under an ICAR adhoc project, esters of four plant oils, viz. linseed, jatropha, sunflower and rice bran were studied. The methyl esters were prepared using an inexpensive, relatively simple and less time-consuming process developed earlier in this Department. Important characteristics of the plant oils and their esters were determined and are discussed in this paper. It was observed that methyl esters exhibited lower values of viscosity, flash point, and density as compared to their un-esterified plant oils in all cases. However, no significant variation was noticed in the gross heat values of these oils.
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