Utilization of unattended methyl ester of paradise oil as fuel in diesel engine

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2009.04.025

Fuel

Volume 88, Issue 10, October 2009, Pages 1828-1833

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2009.04.025 Get rights and content

Abstract

Engine tests have been carried out with the aim of obtaining the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine running on methyl ester of paradise oil (MEPS) and its diesel blends. From the emission analysis it was found that there was a significant reduction in smoke and hydrocarbon emissions by 33% and 22% respectively for MEPS 50 blend and 40% and 27% reductions for MEPS 100. However, there was an increase of 5% and 8% NO_x emission for MEPS 50 and MEPS 100 respectively. Brake thermal efficiencies of MEPS and its diesel blends are slightly lower than that of std. diesel. From the engine analysis, it was found that the performance of MEPS and its diesel blends were similar to that of std. diesel.

Introduction

Compression ignition engines play a greater role than spark ignition engines particularly in the field of heavy transportation and agriculture sectors on account of their higher thermal efficiency and durability. In the light of diminishing fossil fuel reserves, and increasing consumption of energy for sustaining development, there is a need to search for alternative sources of energy based on renewable fuels such as vegetable oil and its derivatives. Fuels of bio-origin can provide a feasible solution to this worldwide petroleum crisis. In addition, bio-fuels offer many benefits, including sustainability, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, regional development and improvement in agriculture [1], [2], [3], [4]. The chemical composition of bio-fuels helps in reducing the emission of unwanted components when they are burned [5], [6], [7].

Considerable efforts have been made to develop vegetable oil derivatives that approximate the properties and performance of hydrocarbon – based diesel fuels. The problems of substituting triglycerides for diesel fuels are their high viscosities and low volatilities. These problems can be overcome by producing bio-diesel by a process called transesterification [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]. Biodiesel has a higher cetane number compared to neat vegetable, which results in shorter ignition delay and combustion duration and hence low particulate emissions [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19].

In the present study, the transesterification process was carried out to convert paradise oil into methyl ester. This process involves making the triglycerides of paradise oil react with methanol in the presence of a potassium hydroxide (KOH) catalyst to produce methyl ester (bio-diesel). This methyl ester and its diesel blends have been successfully tried in a D.I. diesel engine as its fuel. The performance, emission and combustion characteristics were studied and compared with those of diesel.

Section snippets

Potential and characterization of paradise seed oil

The botanical name for paradise tree is Simarouba Glauca. Paradise tree is a multipurpose tree capable of growing on the degraded soils. It can adapt to a wide range of temperatures (10–45 °C) and altitudes up to 1000 m above sea level. Seeds contain 50–65% oil that can be extracted by conventional methods. Each well-grown tree yields 15–30 kg nutlets equivalent to 2.5–5 kg oil and about the same quantity of oilcake. This amounts to 1000–2000 kg oil/ha/year (400–800 kg/acre/year) and about the same

Experimental set-up

The schematic diagram of the experimental set-up used to carry out the present investigation is shown in Fig. 1. The specification of the engine used for the study is given in Table 2. A single cylinder four-stroke air-cooled diesel engine developing 4.4 kW at 1500 rpm was used for the research work. This engine was coupled to a BENZ eddy-current dynamometer with a control system. The engine used in the study is Direct Injection (DI) type. The fuel injection system and nozzle details are given

Brake thermal efficiency

The trends of the brake thermal efficiency of methyl ester of paradise oil and its diesel blends are shown in Fig. 2. It is observed from the figure that the brake thermal efficiency for diesel is higher those of methyl ester and its diesel blends. MEPS 20 blend closely followed the trend of diesel in the case of brake thermal efficiency. The decrease in brake thermal efficiency for higher blends may be due to the lower heating value and higher viscosity of blends with a higher proportion of

Combustion analysis

Fig. 7 shows the variation of cylinder pressure with crank angle for methyl ester of paradise oil and its diesel blends. The cylinder peak pressure decreases as the proportion of methyl ester in the blends increases but, for all methyl ester blends peak cylinder pressure is lower than for diesel. At all engine loads combustion starts earlier for methyl ester blends than for diesel. This may be partly owing to advanced injection timing (because of a higher bulk modulus and higher density of

Conclusion

The performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a 4.4 kW DI compression ignition engine fuelled with MEPS and its blends have been analyzed, and compared to those of diesel fuel. The conclusion of the present work is summarized as follows.

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Brake thermal efficiencies of MEPS and its diesel blends were slightly lower than that of std. diesel.
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A significant reduction in HC and Smoke emissions by 22% and 33% respectively were recorded for MEPS 50 blend whereas, 27% and 40% reductions were

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Utilization of unattended methyl ester of paradise oil as fuel in diesel engine

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Potential and characterization of paradise seed oil

Experimental set-up

Brake thermal efficiency

Combustion analysis

Conclusion

Prog Energy Combust Sci

Renew Sustainable Energy Rev

Renew Sustainable Energy Rev

Energy Convers Manage

Fuel

Fuel Process Technol

Prog Energy Combust Sci

Energy Convers Manage

Fuel

Renew Energy

Fuel

Alternative diesel fuels from vegetable oils

Bioresource Technol