Potential alternatives to edible oils for biodiesel production - A review of current work

Enhancing heat transfer surface are used in many engineering applications such as heat exchanger, air conditioning, chemical reactor and refrigeration systems, hence many techniques have been investigated on enhancement of heat transfer rate and decrease the size and cost of the involving equipment especially in heat exchangers. One of the most important techniques used are passive heat transfer technique. These techniques when adopted in Heat exchanger proved that the overall thermal performance improved significantly. This paper reviews experimental and numerical works taken by researchers on this technique since 2004 such as twisted tape, wire coil, swirl flow generator,… etc. to enhance the thermal efficiency in heat exchangers and useful to designers implementing passive augmentation techniques in heat exchange. The authors found that variously developed twisted tape inserts are popular researched and used to strengthen the heat transfer efficiency for heat exchangers. The other techniques used for specific work environments are studied in this paper. Twisted tape inserts perform better in laminar flow than turbulent flow. However, the other several passive techniques such as ribs, conical nozzle, and conical ring, etc. are generally more efficient in the turbulent flow than in the laminar flow.

A comprehensive review on passive heat transfer enhancements in pipe exchangers

Economic reasons (material and energy saving) leads to make efforts for making more efficient heat exchange. The heat transfer enhancement techniques are widely used in many applications in the heating process to make possible reduction in weight and size or enhance the performance of heat exchangers. These techniques are classified as active and passive techniques. The active technique required external power while the passive technique does not need any external power. The passive techniques are valuable compared with the active techniques because the swirl inserts manufacturing process is simple and can be easily employed in an existing heat exchanger. Insertion of swirl flow devices enhance the convective heat transfer by making swirl into the bulk flow and disrupting the boundary layer at the tube surface due to repeated changes in the surface geometry. An effort has been made in this paper to carry out an extensive literature review of various turbulators (coiled tubes, extended surfaces (fin, louvered strip, winglet), rough surfaces (Corrugated tube, Rib) and swirl flow devices such as twisted tape, conical ring, snail entry turbulator, vortex rings, coiled wire) for enhancing heat transfer in heat exchangers. It can be concluded that wire coil gives better overall performance if the pressure drop penalty is considered. The use of coiled square wire turbulators leads to a considerable increase in heat transfer and friction loss over those of a smooth wall tube.

Review of heat transfer enhancement methods: Focus on passive methods using swirl flow devices

Energy is fundamental to the quality of life in the earth. Meeting the growing demand for energy sustainably is one of the major challenges of the 21st century. Indonesia is a developing country and the world's fourth most populous nation. Total annual energy consumption increased from 300,147 GWh in 1980, 625,500 GWh in 1990, 1,123,928 in 2000 and to 1,490,892 in 2009 at an average annual increase of 2.9%. Presently, fossil-fuel-based energies are the major sources of energy in Indonesia. During the last 12 years, Indonesia has recorded the most severe reduction in fossil fuel supplies in the entire Asia-Pacific region. This reduction has stimulated promoting the usage of renewable energy resources capable of simultaneously balancing economic and social development with environmental protection. Biodiesel is an alternative and environmentally friendly fuel that will participate in increasing renewable energy supply. Jatropha curcas is one of biodiesel resources that offer immediate and sustained greenhouse gas advantages over other biodiesel resources. Globally, J. curcas has created an interest for researchers because it is non-edible oil, does not create a food versus fuel conflict and can be used to produce biodiesel with same or better performance results when testing in diesel engines. The present study is concerned with the prospect of biodiesel produced from J. curcas in Indonesia. The first part gives a summary and overview of energy resources and consumption in the country, second part discusses the potential of biodiesel as a powerful renewable energy resource and third part investigates the potential of J. curcas as a feedstock for biodiesel in Indonesia. The final part discusses the development of biodiesel market in Indonesia. The paper found out that the production of biodiesel from J. curcas offers many social, economical and environmental benefits for the country and can play a great role to solve the problem of energy crisis in Indonesia.

A review on prospect of Jatropha curcas for biodiesel in Indonesia

In this contribution, authors present a review on the state-of-the-art in the utilization of industrial and agricultural waste materials for the development of metal–matrix composites (MMCs), providing, through the judicious analysis of an ample and varied references source – from the oldest to the newest ones – an insight into the challenges and opportunities for the exploitation to their full potential. In addition to its topicality, the novelty of this contribution lies in the presentation of key statistical, technical, and property-related information of a comprehensive variety of waste materials classed into two main groups, namely, fly ash reinforced MMCs and MMCs derived from other waste materials. Although fly ash has been exploited in a broad range of applications, the attention paid for its use in the development of MMCs seems to be insufficient. A purposely designed chart helped to pinpoint the more demanding and profitable applications of fly ash, and establish strategic opportunity ar...

Development of metal-matrix composites from industrial/agricultural waste materials and their derivatives

The present work shows the results obtained from experimental investigations of the augmentation of turbulent flow heat transfer in a horizontal tube by means of varying width twisted tape inserts with air as the working fluid. In order to reduce excessive pressure drops associated with full width twisted tape inserts, with less corresponding reduction in heat transfer coefficients, reduced width twisted tapes of widths ranging from 10 mm to 22 mm, which are lower than the tube inside diameter of 27.5 mm are used. Experiments were carried out for plain tube with/without twisted tape insert at constant wall heat flux and different mass flow rates. The twisted tapes are of three different twist ratios (3, 4 and 5) each with five different widths (26-full width, 22, 18, 14 and 10 mm) respectively. The Reynolds number varied from 6000 to 13500. Both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are calculated and the results are compared with those of plain tube. It was found that the enhancement of heat transfer with twisted tape inserts as compared to plain tube varied from 36 to 48% for full width (26mm) and 33 to 39% for reduced width (22 mm) inserts. Correlations are developed for friction factors and Nusselt numbers for a fully developed turbulent swirl flow, which are applicable to full width as well as reduced width twisted tapes, using a modified twist ratio as pitch to width ratio of the tape. 

International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 6, 2010, pp. 107-118

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Enhancement of heat transfer using varying width twisted tape inserts

Biomass derived vegetable oils are quite promising alternative fuels for agricultural diesel engines. Use of vegetable oils in diesel engines leads to slightly inferior performance and higher smoke emissions due to their high viscosity. The performance of vegetable oils can be improved by modifying them through the transesterification process. In the present work, the performance of single cylinder water-cooled diesel engine using methyl-ester of Jatropha oil as fuel was evaluated for its performance and exhaust emissions. The fuel properties of biodiesel such as kinematic viscosity, calorific value, flash point, carbon residue and specific gravity were found. Results indicated that B25 has closer performance to diesel and B100 has lower brake thermal efficiency, mainly due to its high viscosity compared to diesel. The brake thermal efficiency for biodiesel and its blends was found to be slightly higher than that of diesel fuel at tested load conditions and there was no difference between the biodiesel and its blended fuels efficiencies. For Jatropha biodiesel and its blended fuels, the exhaust gas temperature increased with increase in power and amount of biodiesel. But, diesel blends showed reasonable efficiency, lower smoke, CO2, CO and HC.

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Use of Jatropha oil methyl ester and its blends as an alternative fuel in diesel engine

The major problem with the direct use of vegetable oils as fuel into CI engines is their higher viscosity. It interferes the fuel injection and atomization and contributes to incomplete combustion, nozzle clogging, excessive engine deposits, ring sticking, producing thick smoke, etc. The problem of higher viscosity of vegetable oils can be overcome to a greater extent by various techniques, such as heating of fuel lines, trans-esterification, modification of injection system, etc. In the present investigation, short term tests were conducted with the use of untreated cotton seed oil in a single cylinder, four stroke, and direct injection diesel engine. Tests were conducted with cotton seed oil and diesel. To improve the combustion characteristics of cotton seed oil in an unmodified engine, effect of increase in injection pressure was studied. The injection pressure was increased from 180 bar to 240 bar (in steps of 15 bar). The investigation revealed that the optimum pressure for cottonseed oil as 210 bar and comparison of the performance of the engine was studied in terms of brake specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, indicated thermal efficiency, mechanical efficiency and exhaust emissions.

International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 6, 2010, pp. 142-149

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Optimization of injection pressure for a compression ignition engine with cotton seed oil as an alternate fuel

Biomass derived vegetable oils are quite promising alternative fuels for agricultural diesel engines. Use of vegetable oils in diesel engines leads to slightly inferior performance and higher smoke emissions due to their high viscosity. The performance of vegetable oils can be improved by modifying them through the transesterification process. In this present work, the erformance of single cylinder water-cooled diesel engine using methyl-ester of Jatropha oil as the fuel was evaluated for its performance and exhaust emissions. The fuel properties of biodiesel such as kinematic viscosity, calorific value, flash point, carbon residue and specific gravity were found. Results indicate that B25 has closer performance to diesel and B100 has lower brake thermal efficiency mainly due to its high viscosity compared to diesel. The brake thermal efficiency for biodiesel and its blends was found to be slightly higher than that of diesel fuel at tested load conditions and there was no difference of efficiency between the biodiesel and its blended fuels. For Jatropha biodiesel and its blended fuels, the exhaust gas temperature increased with the increase of power and amount of biodiesel. However, its diesel blends showed reasonable efficiencies, lower smoke, CO2, CO and HC emissions. Keywords: Jatropha oil, bio-fuels, transesterification, performance and emission characteristics DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.2008.02.032-038 Citation: Hanumantha Rao Y V, Ram Sudheer Voleti, Hariharan V S, Sitarama Raju A V. Jatropha oil methyl ester and its blends used as an alternative fuel in diesel engine. Int J Agric & Biol Eng. 2008; 1(2): 32

Jatropha oil methyl ester and its blends used as an alternative fuel in diesel engine

The response to post-weld heat treatment of an 18%Ni (250 grade) gas tungsten arc weld metal has been investigated. The post-weld heat treatments are (a) direct aging at 480°C/3 h/air cooling, (b) solutionising at 815°C/1 h/air cooling+aging at 480°C/3 h/air cooling and (c) homogenisation at 1150°C/1 h/air cooling+solutionising at 815°C/1 h/air cooling+aging at 480°C/3 h/air cooling. Metallographic characterisation of fusion zone revealed pronounced segregation of titanium and molybdenum along the interdendritic and intercellular boundaries. This led, during subsequent aging, to austenite reversion at temperatures much lower than in wrought (unwelded) material. Solutionised treatment at 815°C does not remove the segregation. Homogenisation treatment (1150°C/1 h/air cooling) succeeded in making the composition become homogenised. Mechanical properties including tensile, hardness and impact toughness were evaluated. Tensile test results showed that directly aged weldments exhibited lower strength bu...

A. V. Sita Rama Raju

Papers

Enhancement of heat transfer using varying width twisted tape inserts

Use of Jatropha oil methyl ester and its blends as an alternative fuel in diesel engine

Optimization of injection pressure for a compression ignition engine with cotton seed oil as an alternate fuel

Jatropha oil methyl ester and its blends used as an alternative fuel in diesel engine

Influence of post-weld heat treatments on microstructure and mechanical properties of gas tungsten arc maraging steel weldments