Yellow Oleander (Thevetia peruviana) Seed Oil Biodiesel as an Alternative and Renewable Fuel for Diesel Engines: A Review

Abstract: Biodiesel, an alternative and renewable fuel for diesel engines, consists of alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids, more commonly methyl esters and is typically made from nontoxic, biological resources such as edible and non-edible vegetable oils, animal fats, waste cooking oils and oil from algae by transesterification with methanol. Despite many processes of biodiesel production, transesterification method is successfully employed to reduce the high viscosity of triglycerides and improve other characteristics of biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel has been chosen as one of the interesting alternative fuels and has been receiving a lot of attention throughout the world as it is renewable, biodegradable, non-toxic and environmentfriendly fuel. Currently, it is economically not feasible to use food-grade vegetable oils to produce biodiesel because of the food shortage and day to day increase in feedstocks price. Much attention has been devoted to the application of low cost non-conventional and nonedible feedstocks from the wild plants to produce biodiesel. Plants bearing non-edible seeds have the potentials of reclaiming wasteland and do not compete with food crops and utilization of these non-conventional and non-edible feedstocks can be sustainable for biodiesel production. This paper is an attempt to review on production, fuel properties and blending effect of biodiesel from yellow oleander (Thevetia peruviana) seed oil, a non-edible feedstock having 60-65% oil content