The present work has been carried out to study the suitability of milk dairy waste scum (MDWS) biodiesel as a fuel for diesel engine. The investigations were carried out on performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a direct injection dual cylinder diesel engine fueled with MDWS methyl ester, and their blends. Two-step transesterification process was used to synthesize the MDWS biodiesel, characterization according to specified ASTM D6751-15C standards. The performance characteristics studies showed an increased brake thermal efficiency of B20 (3%) and B30 (0.94%) blends in comparison to fossil diesel. However, the increased brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was also found with all the fuel blends and an higher (9%) BSFC was obtained with B50 compared to diesel fuel at full load condition. The emissions of blends were found to be lower in comparison with diesel fuel, except for nitrogen oxides. A 32% increase in NOx emission was found with B50 blend compared to diesel fuel at maximum load condition. However, improved combustion characteristics would found with MDWS blends with respect to in-cylinder pressure, ignition delay, and heat release rate compared to fossil diesel.

Solgel gel derived bioglasses require stabilisation heat treatment to decompose nitrates and to improve mechanical stability. While decomposing nitrate phases especially in solgel derived 45S5 bioglass, it is difficult to avoid crystallisation of silicate crystalline phases (Na₂CaSi₂O₆, Na₂Ca₂Si₃O₉) due to overlapping of nitrates decomposition and silicates crystallisation temperatures. Control of such crystallinity amount in bioglasses is at most important during stabilisation as it affects the dissolution rates of bioglassesin body fluids. Controlling and quantifying of this crystallinity helps in engineering bioglasses for specific period in application. In this work, synthesis of 45S5 bioglass through solgel method is presented. Here, temperature and time dependent crystallisation kinetics were estimated using a quality parameter derived from X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of bioglass during stabilisation treatment. Quality parameter derived from XRD patterns is termed as I_PB which is the ratio of integral area of peaks to the integral area of background. It is proposed that I_PB can be used as quality parameter to assess crystallinity and to study crystallisation kinetics in bioglasses.