HEMP (CANNABIS SATIVA) AND SAFFLOWER (CARTHAMUSTINCTORIUS) AS POTENTIAL BIODIESEL FEEDSTOCKS IN TURKEY

Turkey spends a large part of its foreign currency reserve to buy crude oil. Producing biofuels to substituteoil imports helps reduce the oil bill. Biodiesel as an alternative fuel is one of the most attractive biofuels due to itsenvironmental advantages. Recently, Exploration of biodiesel production from various feedstocks has attracted moreattention than in the past. Safflower (Carthamustinctorius L.) and Hemp (Cannabis sativa) oils are examples of thesefeedstocks. In this study, Safflower and Hemp oils were investigated as potential feedstocks for biodiesel production inTurkey. Safflower and Hemp methyl esters were produced by transesterification process with methanol and sodiumhydroxide (NaOH) as a catalyst. This was followed by investigation of some physical and chemical properties of theproduced biodiesel such as the kinematic viscosity, cloud pour point, pour point, flash point, density and cold filterplugging point. It has been found that all properties of Safflower and Hemp methyl esters fell within ASTM D 6751 andEN 14214 biodiesel standards. It has been found that the cloud and pour points of Safflower and Hemp methyl esterswere (-2 and 3 °C) and (-7 and -4 °C) respectively. These results indicate that both feedstocks are good for the coldweather regions such as Turkey. As a conclusion, this study recommends further investigation of these feedstocks interm of blending with fossil diesel at different percentages and examine the effect on engine and emissionsperformance.