Assessment of Salicylic Acid in Castor Oil Content Increase in Emissions of Its Biodiesel Blends

Abstract

Ricinus communis is a species distributed worldwide. Its seeds are used to produce castor oil, which can be used for the production of biofuels; yield improvement can be achieved with elicitors that are substances of biological origin that can induce increased productivity of primary and secondary metabolism, when applied to plants. Salicylic acid (SA) is a natural constituent of plants, and applied exogenously acts as an elicitor. The aim of this work is to evaluate the oil content of castor bean plants elicitated with 900, 600, 300, and 100 µM of salicylic acid and its emissions derived from biodiesel made with the oil in blends (0, 10 and 20%) with commercial fuel in a 296 cc diesel cycle engine; elicitation was foliar sprayed. The oil content increased 39% when 900 µM SA was applied compared to control, and the evaluation of emissions showed the maximum reduction with 20% of Ricinus communis biodiesel (RCB) in all different RPM rates. Otherwise, the use of SA could be a method to increase oil content in castor plants as there is no difference in emission reduction derived from the SA application compared to control.