Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and

Environmental Effects

ISSN: 1556-7036 (Print) 1556-7230 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ueso20

Comparison of fuel characteristics of green

(renewable) diesel with biodiesel obtainable from
algal oil and vegetable oil

Tanisha Manchanda, Rashmi Tyagi & Durlubh Kumar Sharma

To cite this article: Tanisha Manchanda, Rashmi Tyagi & Durlubh Kumar Sharma (2017):
Comparison of fuel characteristics of green (renewable) diesel with biodiesel obtainable from algal
oil and vegetable oil, Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects,
DOI: 10.1080/15567036.2017.1405109

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2017.1405109

Published online: 28 Nov 2017.

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 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2017.1405109

Comparison of fuel characteristics of green (renewable) diesel with

biodiesel obtainable from algal oil and vegetable oil
Tanisha Manchandaa, Rashmi Tyagi a
, and Durlubh Kumar Sharmab
a
Department of Applied Sciences, The NorthCap University, Gurugram, Haryana, India; bCentre for Energy Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
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ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
To fulfill the need of renewable, sustainable, and cleaner form of fuel, Algal biodiesel; comparison;
scientists are attracted toward biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil or cracked vegetable oil; fuel
green (renewable) diesel. Biodiesel is generally obtained from vegetable oil characteristics; green diesel;
by the process of transesterification while green diesel is obtained by Pongamia biodiesel
hydrogenation. However, chemically both are completely different and
thus their physical properties are highly affected. In present work, authors
have compared the important properties of Pongamia biodiesel, algal bio-
diesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil. It is observed that both the biofuels
may be blended for use in diesel engines as this will complement their fuel
characteristics.

Introduction
Biodiesel is generally obtained from the edible crop plants such as palm oil, rapeseed oil etc. or from
non-edible oils (Jatropha curcas, Pongamia pinnata etc.). Microalgae have gained lot of attention in
recent years and are recognized as a promising alternative of biodiesel because of its numerous
advantages over land-based crops (Gautam, Pareek, and Sharma 2015). Photosynthetic efficiency of
algae is higher than that of land plants.
Biodiesel is composed of mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids and synthesized by the
transesterification of an oil or fat with an alcohol. Transesterification reduces the viscosity of highly
viscous vegetable oils making these suitable as a biodiesel. Other processes which are used to
synthesize biofuels from vegetable oil are cracking, supercritical methanol, enzyme hydrolysis, and
hydroprocessing (Sharma 2015). Hydrotreating is a promising technology for the production of
hydrocarbon biofuel termed as renewable diesel or green diesel or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO)
which can be a sustainable replacement of petrodiesel. Hydrotreating takes place at higher tempera-
ture (300–400°C) in the presence of hydrogen under pressure of almost 100 atm. and using Ni-Mo/
Al2O3, Co-Mo/Al2O3 or NiW/Al2O3, heterogeneous catalysts resulting in the production of hydro-
carbons in the range of C15-C18 with the removal of oxygen and at times sulphur and nitrogen as
well (Demirbas and Dincer 2008; Kiss, Dimian, and Rothenberg 2006, 2008; Rajesh et al. 2015,
2016a, 2016b; Zarchin et al. 2015). The cracked liquid product obtained by the cracking or pyrolysis
of Jatropha curcas oil has gained lot of attention for the production of not only biodiesel but
biogasoline as well. The kinetics of cracking of Jatropha oil and effect of various catalysts on catalytic
cracking of Jatropha oil have been reported in detail (Biswas and Sharma 2014; Kham-Or,
Suwannasom, and Ruangviriyachai 2016). Co-cracking of Jatropha oil has also been reported with
bagasse (Biswas, Mohanty, and Sharma 2014). The biodiesel obtained by cracking or reactive co-
cracking of vegetable oils may be termed as cracked vegetable oil diesel (CVO-diesel). As a part of

CONTACT Tanisha Manchanda tanisha.manchanda@gmail.com Department of Applied Sciences, The NorthCap

University, Sector 23-A, Gurugram 122017, Haryana, India.
© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 2 T. MANCHANDA ET AL.

the large program on biofuels, Sharma and his research groups have undertaken research work on
the production of biodiesel (Deeba et al. 2012; Gautam, Gupta, and Sharma 2014; Manchanda, Tyagi,
and Sharma 2016; Manchanda et al. 2014; Sharma 2015), green diesel (Rajesh et al. 2015, 2016a,
2016b), and CVO-diesel (Biswas, Mohanty, and Sharma 2014; Biswas and Sharma 2013, 2014). These
biofuels are used either to replace petrodiesel or these are blended with petrodiesel in CI engines.
Chemical composition of these fuels is different and still they are used as diesel fuel. It would be
interesting to compare the fuel characteristics of these fuels with a view to compare their perfor-
mance in engines as well as their environmental emission aspects. Attempts had been made in the
past to compare the properties of biodiesel obtainable from plant seed oil i.e. vegetable oils with
those of green diesel or renewable diesel (Knothe 2010). However, biodiesel can not only be obtained
from vegetable oils but even from algal oils. Therefore, presently authors have attempted to compare
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the fuel characteristics of biodiesel obtained from Karanja (Pongamia pinnata) oil, algal oil and green
diesel from vegetable oils. A point wise comparison has also been reported presently.

Materials and methods

Production of algal biodiesel
The algal biodiesel has been produced previously by the workers in author’s laboratory. Briefly, for
extracting hydrocarbons and oil, the algal biomass was freeze dried, homogenized with hexane and
chloroform:methanol (2:1), separately, centrifuged and then supernatant was dried and hydrocar-
bons and oil were estimated gravimetrically after distilling of the solvents. The oil obtained was
converted into fatty acid methyl esters or FAMEs by transesterification using methanol by the
procedure reported earlier (Manchanda, Tyagi, and Sharma 2016; Manchanda et al. 2014).

Production of Pongamia biodiesel

The biodiesel from the non-edible plants such as Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata has been
produced previously by Sharma’s research group. The oil from Pongamia pinnata (Karanja) was
obtained by pressing the oil seeds. Further, pretreatment was carried out by the acid catalyzed
reaction which was then followed by the base catalyzed transesterification (Gautam, Gupta, and
Sharma 2014). The use of lipase enzyme for the production of biodiesel has also been reported
(Deeba et al. 2012).

Production of hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO)

Sharma’s research group has reported the production of HVO that is green diesel (Rajesh et al. 2015,
2016a, 2016b).

Results and discussion

Hydrotreated vegetable oil or green diesel and biodiesel are the sustainable alternatives of conven-
tional petrodiesel. Earlier, research work on the chemical composition of these fuels by using GC-MS
analysis has been reported by Sharma’s research group (Biswas, Mohanty, and Sharma 2014; Biswas
and Sharma 2013, 2014; Gautam, Gupta, and Sharma 2014; Manchanda, Tyagi, and Sharma 2016;
Manchanda et al. 2014; Rajesh et al. 2015, 2016a, 2016b). However, further research work was
undertaken to compare the fuel characteristics of these fuels to understand their performance in CI
engines. In fact, fuel characteristics of biodiesel obtained from Pongamia or Karanja oil and algal oil
and hydrogenated vegetable oil have been reported by using these fuels individually (in the
literature). These fuel characteristics have been compared to analyze their use in engines. A brief
reference to the production of these fuels has also been included. The comparison of both the
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 3

biofuels is shown in Table 1. The fuel characteristics of green diesel and algal biodiesel are entirely
different because of the difference in their chemical composition (Table 1). (Aatola et al. 2008; Baiju,
Naik, and Das 2009; Dhar and Agarwal 2014; McCall et al. 2005; Prathima and Karthikeyan 2017;
Vijayaraghavan and Hemanathan 2009; Wang et al. 2012; Yenumala, Maity, and Shee 2016; Zhao
et al. 2015). The GC-MS analysis of microalgal and Pongamia pinnata fatty acid methyl esters shows
the higher relative percentage of oleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid having carbon atoms in the
range of C16–C18 (Manchanda et al. 2014; Naik et al. 2008; Porwal et al. 2012). The Pongamia
pinnata oil has been reported to preferentially produce n-paraffins in the range of C15–C18 on
hydrotreatment (Nimkarde and Vaidya 2016) indicating their potential as biodiesel to replace
petrodiesel, as these are desirable carbon numbers for diesel fuel used in CI engines. The perfor-
mance of an engine is highly influenced by the properties of fuel used. Viscosity is an important
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property of biodiesel. It may cause operational problems in diesel engine as higher viscosity of the
fuel results in poor or incomplete atomization of fuel and droplet formation. The density and
viscosity of HVO is lower than that of biodiesel which can be due to the presence of high percentage
of hydrocarbons and removal of oxygen, respectively (Table 1). Additionally, elimination of oxygen
also increases its calorific value, thus, enhancing its suitability for diesel engines. Calorific value
defines the quality as well as quantity of heat (or in other words power) produced by unit mass of
fuel on complete combustion. The lubricity of biodiesel has been reported to be better than HVO
due to the presence of ester component. The property of lubricity is important as it reduces the wear
and tear of engine components caused due to friction and avoid the use of lubricating oil blends.
Cetane number defines the ignition quality or ignition delay of a fuel in CI engines. Higher cetane
fuels have lesser delay in ignition and vice-versa. Cetane number of HVO is higher than biodiesel
though cetane number of both the biofuels is good enough for use in diesel engines (Table 1). HVO
and biodiesel, both have negligible amount of sulphur. The low temperature performance of biofuel
is decided by its cloud point and pour point. Both these points as well as the distillation of both the
fuels is appropriate for the operation of diesel engine. Emission performance of biodiesel is also
good.

Comparison between Pongamia pinnata oil (or vegetable oil)-biodiesel and algal oil (mainly
Botryococcus braunii)-biodiesel
Botryococcus braunii contains not only lipids (i.e. long hydrocarbon chain glycerides) but also long
chain hydrocarbons. Pongamia pinnata (a non-edible seed) contains mainly lipids only.
Interestingly, density, viscosity and flash point of algal oil-biodiesel was found to be lower than

Table 1. Comparison of the important properties of algal biodiesel, Pongamia biodiesel and HVO or green diesel.
EURO-IVa HVO
Parameter Diesel specifications Algal biodieselb Karanja biodieselc (Green diesel)d
Density (kg/mc) 820–845 801 881 780
Kinematic viscosity at 40°C (mmb/s) 2.0–4.5 3.6–5.4 4.41 2.5–3.5
Flash point, min. (°C) 35–66 98 168 120–138
Pour point, max. (°C) 3.0–15.0 −14 5 9
Cloud point (°C) - −15 to 2 12 −5 to −30
Calorific value (MJ/kg) - 40 37.98 44
Cetane number, min. 51 52 50.8 80–90
Acid number(mg KOH/g) - 0.4 0.43 33.3
Sulphur content, max. (mg/kg) 50 54 20 <detection limit
Oxygen content (wt%) - - 12.8 0
Distillation (°C) - - 394 265–320
Lubricity (HFRR), max. (µm) 460 - 360
a
www.borl.in/Common/Uploads/ContentTemplate/190_Download_HSD%20Euro-IV.pdf Accessed 20 August 2017.
b
Prathima and Karthikeyan (2017); Vijayaraghavan and Hemanathan (2009).
c
Baiju, Naik, and Das (2009); Dhar and Agarwal (2014).
d
Aatola et al. (2008); McCall et al. (2005); Wang et al. (2012); Yenumala, Maity, and Shee (2016); Zhao et al. (2015).
 4 T. MANCHANDA ET AL.

that of Pongamia oil (Table 1). Calorific value of algal oil-biodiesel was also found to be higher.
Cetane number of algal oil-biodiesel was also found to be slightly higher. Algal oil-biodiesel
contained slightly more sulphur (Table 1). Present studies showed that algal oil-biodiesel had better
fuel characteristics in comparison to those of Pongamia oil (Table 1). Gautam, Pareek, and Sharma
(2015) and Sharma and Sharma (2010) had reviewed the importance of algal fuels for providing
biodiesel as well as for biosequestration of CO2.

Comparison of green diesel, algal-biodiesel, and Pongamia biodiesel

The density, viscosity and flash point of green diesel was found to be the least (Table 1). Calorific
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value of green diesel was found to be the highest, which is due to the reason that hydrogenation of
glyceride lipids leads to the production of hydrocarbons through deoxygenation. Biodiesel does
contain oxygenated functional groups. Green diesel seems to show better fuel characteristics.
However, further studies in this direction would be required considering a wide variations in
the chemical composition of lipids in algae and vegetable oils (edible or non-edible), costs of
hydrogen, methanol, their availability, and severity of conditions employed in the catalytic
hydrogenation reactors. Since there could be wide variations in the chemical composition of
algal oils, and vegetable oils, therefore, a caution on some variations would be advisable here.
An attempt has been made to draw a comparison between biodiesel and green diesel as shown in
Table 2. It may be useful to blend biodiesel and green diesel and use these in some appropriate
ratios. Biodiesel would provide lubricity, green diesel has higher calorific value and other fuel
characteristics. Pour point of green diesel is higher, therefore, it may not perform well in cold
climate. Biodiesel may offer better emission performances. Its pour point is also good. Further
studies on the life cycle analysis may also be required to compare both biodiesel and green diesel in

Table 2. Comparison of biodiesel and HVO or green diesel.

S. No. Biodiesel HVO/Green diesel
1. Production under milder ambient pressure Production under severe conditions of high temperature and high
conditions pressure
2. Use of biomass, coal, petroleum and natural gas Use of costly H2, obtainable from biomass, coal and petroleum also
derived alcohols
3. Oxygen content is more Oxygen content is lesser
4. Calorific value is lower Calorific value is high
5. Newer unit process of transalkylation for Easy to be integrated with petroleum refineries which are well
petroleum refineries conversant and used to, with hydrocracking operations
6. Lubricity is good Requires addition of lubricants or other compounds for improving
lubricity also
7. Can be blended with petrodiesel Can be blended with petrodiesel
8. Problems of the marketing of glycerol Utilization of propane or other smaller hydrocarbons
9. Use of acids or alkalis as catalysts and requires Use of Ni-Mo or Co-Mo catalysts on alumina support and normal
good materials of construction hydrocrackers may also be used.
10. More popular Emerging as an alternative or as a blender of petrodiesel
11. Heterogeneous catalysts are being developed Carbon based catalysts have also been developed
12. Wide range of alcohols including butanol may be May also be obtained from cracking or catalytic cracking of
used for improved properties vegetable or algal oil under milder conditions and at ambient
pressure.
13. Comparatively more density and viscosity Comparatively lesser density and viscosity
14. Cetane number is lesser but OK Cetane number is higher and OK
15. May require the removal of fatty acids in May lead to the production of water, H2S, NH3 etc. and an
pretreatment step uneconomical consumption of H2
16. Technology may be developed further Use of synthesis gas in hydrocracking reactions may be made
17. Pour point of biodiesel is good Pour point does not seem to be good
18. Properties can vary with different algal oil or Properties can vary with feedstocks and even algal oil may be
vegetable oil feedstocks hydrocracked to obtain green diesel
19. Emission performance may be better Emission performance seem to be OK
20. Chemical composition is different from that of Chemical composition is more akin to petrodiesel
petrodiesel
 ENERGY SOURCES, PART A: RECOVERY, UTILIZATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 5

detail. There is also a further scope of work on studying the fuel characteristics of CVO-diesel as
this involves milder ambient pressure conditions for producing same and avoid the use of H2,
alcohols etc. (Biswas and Sharma 2013, 2014).

Conclusions
Biodiesel has good lubricating properties. Green diesel or renewable diesel has higher calorific value
and lower oxygen contents. In fact, green diesel seems to be a good fuel by comparing the fuel
characteristics, excepting its pour point is higher and this may need some additives. It may be better
to use a blend of both biodiesel and green diesel. This would help in complementing the properties
of each fuel and both the biofuels are renewable and help in the biosequestration of CO2. There is a
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wide scope of further studies in this direction towards setting up biorefineries and establishing
bioeconomy.

ORCID
Rashmi Tyagi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1736-2484

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