Physical, chemical and fuel related properties of tomato seed oil for evaluating its direct use in diesel engines

Oil was extracted from tomato seeds, tested for several important alternative fuel properties and compared with other vegetable oils. The oil yield of tomato seeds is about 35% on a dry weight basis. This vegetable oil has low volatility, low sulphur, low ash content, and high viscosity. Cetane number, density as well as the cold flow properties are similar to those of other vegetable oils. The fatty acid profile of tomato seed oil shows that there is a predominance of compounds containing an even number of carbon atoms, especially C-16 and C-18. The total saturated and unsaturated fatty acid composition is 18.28% and 81.72%, respectively, and the most abundant fatty acid is linoleic acid (56.12%). This study indicates that tomato seed oil is a renewable energy source and a promising fuel substitute which could be used in the diesel engine to bring down the consumption of the conventional petroleum products. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.