© 2012 Jerekias Gandure, Clever Ketlogetswe. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Global Journal of researches in engineering Mechanical and mechanics engineering Volume 12 Issue 1 Version 1.0 January 2012 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-4596 Print ISSN:0975-5861 Sclerocarya Birrea Plant Oil: A Potential Indigenous Feedstock for Biodiesel Production in Botswana By Jerekias Gandure, Clever Ketlogetswe University of Botswana Abstract - Exploring new feedstocks for biodiesel production is now receiving widespread attention world-over. This paper presents experimental results on properties of celerocarya birrea plant oil. Chemical properties analysis of birrea plant oil were performed using gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, while the engine performance tests were conducted on a variable compression ignition engine. Parameters such as fuel consumption, engine torque and engine brake power were recorded at different engine loads for pure diesel fuel and birrea plant oil. The experimental results indicate that birrea plant oil offer immense potential as both fuel and feedstock for biodiesel production. The performance characteristics of ignition compression engine using birrea plant oil indicate that the optimum compression ignition engine occurs at 60% engine load. Similarly, the results revealed that variations in specific fuel consumption recorded for diesel fuel (D100) and birrea plant oil (BPO) between 30% and 60% show no significant difference for the fuels under review. Keywords : Birrea plant oil, straight vegetable oil (SVO), lipid composition, properties, Botswana. GJRE-A Classification : FOR Code: 090201 SclerocaryaBirreaPlantOilAPotentialIndigenousFeedstockforBiodieselProductioninBotswana Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: