Experimental investigation on performance, combustion and emission analysis of a direct injection diesel engine fuelled with rapeseed oil biodiesel

Corn and soybean biodiesel blends as alternative fuels for diesel engine at different injection pressures

Effect of ternary blends of bio-ethanol, diesel and castor oil on performance, emission and combustion in a CI engine

During the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, the use of coal as fuel set the “train” of progress in motion, which definitely induced a significant improvement in the living standards. After several discoveries, inventions, and innovations, the use of crude oil, the so-called black gold, enabled humanity to reach a higher level of prosperity, especially so between the end of the second World War and the oil embargo crisis. Currently, crude oil is the most traded commodity in the world market and is the main feedstock to produce a wide range of fuels and products such as plastics, textile fibers, dyes, etc. The heavy reliance on petroleum and other fossil fuels for decades caused many environmental disasters around the world and major geopolitical tensions especially in oil-producing countries. In this chapter, the environmental (water, soil, and air) and geopolitical legacy of the petroleum era as well as its impact of human society are thoroughly discussed in order to highlight seriousness of those issues and the necessity for an alternative sustainable economic model for the future.

A Sustainable Bioeconomy

Fossil fuels are the chief contributors to urban air pollution and major source of green house gases and are considered to be the prime cause behind the global climate change. Biofuels are renewable, can supplement fossil fuels, reduce green house gases, and mitigate their adverse effects on the climate resulting from global warming. In the present study, biodiesel produced from karanja oil is evaluated as alternative fuel in a diesel engine. The experiments are conducted on a single-cylinder, four-stroke, direct-injection CI engine and the experimental parameters include the percentage of karanja biodiesel in the blend, engine load, injection pressure, and compression ratio. Comparative measures of brake thermal efficiency, brake-specific fuel consumption, smoke opacity, and HC, CO, and NOX emissions are presented and discussed. Results show that the performance of the engine fuelled with karanja biodiesel and its blends with diesel fuel is generally comparable to that when the engine is fuelled with pur...

A study on the thermal performance and emissions of a variable compression ratio diesel engine fuelled with karanja biodiesel and the optimization of parameters based on experimental data

Bio-diesel is one of the most promising alternatives for diesel needs. Use of edible oil may create shortage of oil seeds for daily food, which necessitates identification of new kinds of non-edible vegetable oil. With this objective, the present work has focused on the performance of castor non-edible vegetable oil and its blend with diesel on a single cylinder, 4 stroke, naturally aspirated, direct injection, water cooled, eddy current dynamometer Kirloskar Diesel Engine at 1500 rpm for variable loads. Initially, castor neat oil and their blends were chosen. The physical and chemical properties of Castor oil were determined. In general, viscosity of neat vegetable oil is high, which can be reduced through blending with diesel and heating them. The heating temperature of the blends increases with the increase in the percentage of neat oils with diesel ranging from 70°C to 120°C before entering into the combustion chamber. The suitability of neat Castor oil and their blends are evaluated through experimentation. The performance and emission characteristics of engine are determined using Castor neat oil and their blends with diesel. These results are compared to those of pure diesel. These results are again compared to the other results of neat oils and their blends available in the literature for validation. By analyzing the graphs, it was observed that the performance characteristics are reduced and emission characteristics are increased at the rated load compared to those of diesel. This is mainly due to lower calorific value, high viscosity and delayed combustion process. From the critical analysis of graphs, it can be observed that 25% of neat Castor oil mixed with 75% of diesel is the best suited blend for Diesel engine without heating and without any engine modifications. It is concluded that castor non-edible oil can be used as an alternate to diesel, which is of low cost. This usage of neat bio-diesel has a great impact in reducing the dependency of India on oil imports.

Ch. S. Naga Prasad

Papers

Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine with castor oil