Development Of Biodiesel from the Oil of Garcinia Gummigutta (Sour Garcinia) by Transesterification Ramesh S Bujari Dept. of Mechanical Engineering S.E.A.College of Engineering and Technology Bangalore,India Sharanappa Godiganur Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Reva Institute of Technology and Management, Bangalore.,India Abstract— The Garcinia gummigutta trees are widely available and grow in tropical regions of Asia and Africa. The Garcinia trees are indigenous to India grow in deciduous and semi evergreen forests of southern Western Ghats of India. The seeds fallen are collected and oil is extracted at village level expellers. Growing Garcinia trees would also help in protecting the environment and benefit the farmers as well. The biodiesel produced by the oil of Garcinia is considered as one of the best substitute for diesel. FFA test is conducted using titration method. As the raw oil consists of high viscosity and free fatty acid (FFA) the three stage standard transesterification method is used to produce biodiesel. The stage wise transesterification removes impurities, wax, gums, etc and the tri glycerides are converted into methyl esters and glycerine. The neat biodiesel is obtained after the removal of glycerine and water wash. Increase in awareness and growth in research in this area can motivate Garcinia gummigutta as the alternative source of fuel by replacing diesel. In the present study attempt has been made to develop the biodiesel from the oil of Garcinia gummigutta. Key words— Garcinia gummigutta,free fatty acid, transesterification, catalyst, titration, biodiesel, methyl esters. I. INTRODUCTION Energy is a basic need of human kind like food and shelter .Increase in population,industrial growth and living standard of people develop the impact on conventional resources. On the other hand depleting nature of fossil fuels and emissions released by fossil fuels limits the use of them. . Production of biodiesel from oil and ethanol from sugar based resources are considered as the best substitute of diesel and gasoline respectively in the country. Vegetable oil as an alternative fuel has been under study at the University of Idaho since 1979. Use of vegetable oil in diesel engines is not a radically new concept as the inventor of diesel engine ‘‘Rudolf Diesel’’ demonstrated his first diesel engine at the World Exhibition at Paris in 1900 by using peanut oil as fuel. However due to abundant supply of petro-diesel, R&D activities on vegetable oil were not seriously pursued Vegetable oils have comparable energy density, cetane number, heat of vaporization, and stoichiometric air/fuel ratio with mineral diesel fuel But high viscosity of vegetable oils causes poor fuel atomization, large droplet size and thus high spray jet penetration causing operational problems related to starting ability, ignition, combustion and performance and durability problems related to deposit formation, carbonization of injector tip, ring sticking and lubricating oil dilution.(1,2,3,4) II. VEGETABLE OILS AS A SOURCES OF BIODIESEL Vegetable oils are generally composed of triglycerides whose molecular structures are branched and complex. The large molecular sizes of the component triglycerides result in the oils having higher viscosity compared with that of mineral diesel fuel. Due to the presence of double bonds in the molecular structure of vegetable oils, they can be modified easily as per requirement by treating with alcohols. Methyl or ethyl ester of fatty acid which is known as biodiesel is made from vegetable oils by the method known as transesterication. Many researchers earlier produced the biodiesel from various vegetable oils. Oils from rapeseed, soyabean, sunflower, mahua, jatropa, neem, and pongamia oils have been successfully converted into biodiesel by transesterification using methanol or ethanol to study the physico chemical prorprerties, performance and emission characteristics in IC engines using biodiesels. Amongst the many species, which can yield oil as a source of energy in the form of bio-fuel (5 to14) III. GARCINIA GUMMIGUTTA AS SOURCE OF BIODIESEL Amongst the many species, which can yield oil as a source of energy in the form of bio-fuel, “Garcinia gummigutta” locally known as Sour Garcinia has been found to be one of the most suitable species in India being grown. Garcinia gummigutta is the scientific name of commonly known Sour garcinia that belongs to the family of Clusiaceae. (16) .It is also known as Camboge or Malabar tamarind, Found commonly in the evergreen forests of Western Ghats, from Konkan south to Travancore and in the Shola forests of Nigeria upto an altitude of 6000 ft. It flowers in November-February, and fruits ripen in April-May Fruits are in June-July. The seeds of the fruit have edible fat, commercially known as Kokam butter. Kokum butter is considered nutritive, demulcent, astringent and emollient. It is suitable for ointments, suppositories. (15,16).The present study has been focussed on the International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Published by, www.ijert.org NCERAME - 2015 Conference Proceedings Volume 3, Issue 17 Special Issue - 2015