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Biodiesel or biodiesel–diesel fuel is the current fuel used to power transportation engines. Contamination on lubricating oil is a common issue due to leakage or extensive use of engines. This study explores the lubricant oil blend's friction and wear with the biodiesel derived from waste cooking oil, waste cooking oil blend withCalophyllum inophyllum oil, and biodiesel–diesel​ blend. The blending of biodiesels and biodiesel–diesel blend with lubricant oil varies from 5% to 25% of biodiesels and biodiesel–diesel with 95% to 75% of lubricating oil based on volume ratio. The test was conducted using a four-ball tribotester according to the ASTM D 4172. The result showed that blending of BWCIL75 with biodiesel–diesel has the lowest friction coefficient (0.072) among tested oil. The wear scar on the ball bearing lubricated with the blending mixture showed an acceptable diameter value. The wear morphology has shown that a worn surface with black spots provides more protection to the tested ball. The result found that fatty acid contained in the biodiesel and the low viscosity of biodiesel significantly reduced the frictional coefficient of the lubricating oil and worked as wear prevention. Mechanical efficiency of machinery component favour low coefficient of friction. This study indicated that biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil blended with Calophyllum inophyllum oil shows better lubricity and can be used as an additive to petroleum-based lubricant for better automotive engine performance.

In this study, microwave irradiation-assisted alkaline-catalysed transesterification was used to produce W70CI30 biodiesel from a mixture of waste cooking oil and Calophyllum inophyllum oil. The methanol/oil ratio, catalyst concentration, stirring speed, and reaction time were optimized using response surface methodology based on the Box-Behnken experimental design in order to maximize the biodiesel yield. The quadratic response surface regression model was used to predict the biodiesel yield. It is found that the optimum methanol/oil ratio, catalyst concentration, stirring speed, and reaction time are 59.60 (v/v)%, 0.774 (w/w)%, 600 rpm, and 7.15 min, respectively, and the predicted biodiesel yield is 97.40%. Experiments were conducted using the optimum process parameters and the average biodiesel yield is 97.65%, which is in excellent agreement with the predicted value. The physicochemical properties of the W70CI30 biodiesel produced using the optimum process parameters were measured and it is found that the biodiesel has significantly higher oxidation stability (18.03 h) compared with the waste cooking oil biodiesel (4.61 h). In addition, the physicochemical properties and cold flow properties of the biodiesel fulfil the fuel specifications stipulated in the ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards. It can be concluded that microwave irradiation-assisted transesterification is effective to boost the biodiesel yield and produce biodiesel of superior quality. In addition, this method significantly reduces the reaction time of the transesterification process to 9.15 min and the process is energy-efficient. It is believed that the findings of this study will be beneficial for microwave irradiation-assisted biodiesel synthesis on the industrial scale.

The realization of declining fossil fuel supplies and the adverse impact of fossil fuels on the environment has accelerated research and development activities in renewable energy sources and technologies. Biofuels are renewable fuels made from edible, non-edible or waste oils, as well as animal fats and algae, and these fuels have been proven to be good substitutes for fossil fuels in the transportation sector. Bioethanol and biodiesels have gained worldwide attention in order to address environmental issues associated with fossil fuels, provide energy security, reduce imports and rural employment, as well as improve agricultural economy. Bioethanol has high oxygen content and octane content up to 35% and 108, respectively and hence, it increases oxygenation and improves combustion of fuel. In addition, bioethanol has lower vaporization pressure, which reduces the risks associated with evaporative emissions. In contrast, biodiesel has good lubricity, which helps protect the surface of engine components from wear and friction. The use of biodiesel–bioethanol–petroleum diesel blends poses a greater challenge with regards to improving the compatibility of the materials with the fuel system in compression ignition (CI) and spark ignition (SI) engines. In this work, the technical conditions of an engine (i.e. engine deposits, wear of the engine components and quality of the lubrication oil) are assessed by the application of with biodiesel–bioethanol–petroleum diesel blends. It is deemed important to evaluate the effects of using bioethanol and biodiesels in diesel engines. This paper provides insight on the feasibility of biodiesel and bioethanol feedstocks, the compatibility of biodiesels, bioethanol and their blends with diesel engines as well as the physicochemical properties of these fuels.

Exploring and improvement of biodiesel production from non-edible vegetable oil is one of the effective ways to solve limited amount of traditional raw materials and their high prices. The main objective of this study is to optimize the biodiesel production process parameters (methanol-to-oil ratio, agitation speed and concentration of the potassium hydroxide catalyst) of a biodiesel derived from non-edible feedstocks, namely Jatropha curcas and Ceiba pentandra, using response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken experimental design. Based on the results, the optimum operating parameters for transesterification of the J50C50 oil mixture at 60 °C over a period of 2 h are as follows: methanol-to-oil ratio: 30%, agitation speed: 1300 rpm and catalyst concentration: 0.5 wt.%. These optimum operating parameters gives the highest yield for the J50C50 biodiesel with a value of 93.33%. The results show that there is a significant improvement in the physicochemical properties of the J50C50 biodiesel after optimization, whereby the kinematic viscosity at 40 °C, density at 15 °C, calorific value, acid value and oxidation stability is 3.950 mm2/s, 831.2 kg/m3, 40.929 MJ/kg, 0.025 mg KOH/g and 10.01 h, respectively. The physicochemical properties of the optimized J50C50 biodiesel fulfill the requirements given in the ASTM D6751 and EN14214 standards.