A property prediction scheme for biodiesel derived from non-edible feedstock

Biodiesel's renewability, universal accessibility and milder impact on the environment has positioned it as a potential fuel of choice for transport prime movers going forward. Biodiesel's unique fuel chemistry while conferring some advantage, has shown some mismatch between it and the current compression ignition (CI) combustion strategy. Computational as well as experimental research on biodiesel combustion are presently, in large part, geared toward resolving this mismatch. Numerical property prediction, as a more efficient and cost effective tool was implemented here to determine the thermo-physical and transport properties of biodiesel derived from moringa, jatropher and waste restaurant oil. Primary and secondary experimental data obtained in accordance with biodiesel standard ASTM D6751 were used to validate the scheme. The average relative deviation (ARD) for most key properties fell within acceptable limit (≤5%). Obtaining higher computational fidelity was observed to correlate with improved accuracy in determining the free fatty acid (FFA) composition of the different component and group contribution of the biodiesel mixture.