Experimental Evaluation of Physicochemical and Thermal Properties of Tetra Biodiesel-Diesel Blends of Jatropha, Karanja, Mahua, and Neem

This research is focused on experimental evaluation of the physicochemical and thermal properties of tetra biodiesel and diesel blends. Four different biodiesels from the non-edible category have been considered to prepare six blends by varying volume percentage of biodiesel from B0 to B20 in a step of 4. It has been found that the density (ρ), kinematic viscosity (ν), and flash point (F) of the blended fuels increase and gross calorific value (GCV) decreases as the biodiesel concentration increases in the blends. TGA has been performed under the temperature range from NTP to 500 °C, and FTIR has been conducted in the wavelength range of 600–4000 cm−1. The maximum deviations of ρ, ν, F, and GCV, when compared to pure diesel (B0), have been observed to be 1.1%, 25.2%, 32.7%, and −3.9%, respectively. TGA shows that mass losses for B20 blend at 200 °C and 500 °C are 50% and 96.43%, respectively. FTIR graphs for both blends B0 and B20 exhibit the stretching of functional groups of C–O, C=O, C–H, CH2, and CH3 at 1100–1300, 1747.51, 2852.72, 2922.16, and 2954.95 cm−1 wavelengths. Regression correlation would able to predict GCV with an accuracy of 99.35%. The uncertainty observed has been ±2.70%.