Papers by Keyword: Bio-Diesel

Abstract: In this study the effect on exhaust gases of a diesel engine fuelled by biodiesel and coupling Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) has been done. EGR is a pre-treatment technique to trim down NO_x from diesel engines as it is expected to reduce the flame temperature and the oxygen concentration in the combustion chamber. Fossil fuels so-called biodiesel is picked as the blending fuel. Existence of oxygen in Biodiesel aids complete combustion and anticipated to reduce CO and HC emissions. Exhaust Gas Recirculation technique can capably reduce the amount of NO_x. EGR may tend to increase the CO and HC emissions, biodiesel which has higher oxygen content is blended to diesel so that it may compensate CO and HC emissions. The performance and emission characteristics of EGR along with biodiesel in a diesel engine are discussed.

Abstract: In this work biodiesel of various proportions has been blended with E20 (20% ethanol and 80% diesel). Bio-diesel concentrations are varied at 10%, 20% and 30% while ethanol concentration was maintained at 20%. Performance, emission and variation of ignition lag of the fuel blends were analyzed. There was a very good reduction in CO emissions by 28% in comparison with E20 and 80% in comparison with diesel. NOx emissions of the blends were decreased by 16% compared with diesel and no variation with E20. Brake Thermal Efficiency (bte) of the blends was higher by 11% up to 75% load and 4% at full load compared with diesel and lesser by 2% in comparison with E20. Ignition-delay of the blends was longer than diesel, and the cetane number of the blends were lower than diesel. Brake Specific Energy Consumption (bsec) is slightly higher than diesel.

Abstract: The production of biodiesel from crude palm oil (CPO) using microwave technique is investigated and has been compared with conventional heating. Two-step biodiesel production process is applied to maximize the highest biodiesel yield in short reaction time using microwave method. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) as acid catalysts is used in pre-treatment of feedstock by esterification process followed by potassium hydroxide (KOH) as base catalyst for transesterification process with low methanol to oil ratio. The main purpose of the pre-treatment process is to reduce the free fatty acids (FFA) content of CPO from higher value of FFA content (>6.8%) to a minimum level for biodiesel production (<1%). Esterification and transesterification is carried out in fully instrumented and controlled microwave reactor system to get higher yield in shorter time. This two-step esterification and transesterification process showed that the maximum conversion of palm biodiesel obtained is 95.1% with the process conditions of methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 6:1, reaction temperature 65oC, reaction time 15min, and 2% (wt/wt) KOH amount using microwave method compared to conventional heating where the palm oil methyl ester (POME) yield obtained is 81% at the same conditions. The result showed that, the biodiesel production using microwave technique proved to be a fast and easy route to get high yields of biodiesel.

Abstract: Biodiesel is an alternative fuel to replace petro diesel with some advantages. One of the methods to produce biodiesel is in-situ transesterification. In this study, in-situ methanolysis of Jatropha curcas seeds in Soxhlet extractor was investigated. Normal hexane was added to enhance the solubility and extractability of methanol in the presence of NaOH as catalyst to Jatropha curcas oil. Response surface methodology based on Box Behnken design was used to determine the optimum reaction conditions. The ratio of mixture volume to seed weight (7.5; 12.5), catalyst concentration (1.75; 2.25 wt.%) and volume ratio of methanol to mixture (0.3; 0.7) were selected as experimental parameters. The biodiesel yield of (91.37 ± 0.57) %, which was insignificantly different with the predicted value, was obtained with the optimum conditions as follows: the ratio of the mixture volume to seed weight of 12.48 (ml/g), 1.75 wt.% of sodium hydroxide concentration, 0.31of the ratio of methanol volume to the mixture volume at 60 °C for 60 min reaction time. The maximum yield of (98.63 ± 2.9) % was achieved at optimum conditions during 3 hours reaction time at 60 °C.

Abstract: A comparative study has been done on a diesel engine, which was equipped with high pressure common rail system. Diesel, soybean oil methyl ester and waste cooking oil methyl ester were test to analyze the influence of bio-diesel on the number and size distribution of PM emissions. The results showed that bio-diesel can significantly reduce the dry soot emission due to the containing of oxygen and the advantage of components, which results the decrease of accumulation particle emissions and total weight emissions. The size distribution of bio-diesel PM emissions becomes unimodal. The density and viscosity of bio-diesel are greater than that of diesel, which results in a significant increase of the number of nucleation particles due to the disadvantages of injection and mixture formation.

Abstract: This article investigates the effect of different injection timings on the combustion and emission characteristics of a Chinese V high pressure common rail diesel engine fuelled with blends of biodiesel and diesel (the volume ration of biodiesel is 20%). The Results show that, retarded injection timing resulted in decrease of ignition delay and combustion duration at all loads, except for 25 percent of full load. Peak cylinder pressure and maximum rate of peak pressure significantly reduced at retarded injection timing. The cycle-by-cycle variation of peak cylinder pressure first increased and then decreased, and the highest was obtained at -4°CA of injection timing. BSFC increased by 0.3% to 4.2% with retarded injection timing. Postponing injection timing effectively reduced NO_x emission. NO_x and PM emissions simultaneously decreased at full load when postponing injection. At 25% load HC and CO emissions were significantly higher than other loads and the effect of injection timing was most obvious.

Abstract: Microbial oil is one of the ideal raw materials for biodiesel production because of its rapid reproduction and less influence by the climate and season variation. However, the high cost is one of the key issues that restricted its production in a large-scale. Lignocellulosic biomass, the cheap and renewable resource, might be the best raw material for microbial oil production by oleaginous microorganisms. Recent development on the microbial oil production from lignocellulosic biomass was summarized in this paper. Furthermore, the challenges and application potential of microbial oil were prospected.

Abstract: Recent concerns over the environment, increasing fuel prices and scarcity of its supply have promoted the interest in development of the alternative sources for petroleum fuels. The methyl esters of vegetable oils, known as biodiesel are becoming increasingly popular because of their low environmental impact and potential as a green alternative fuel for diesel engine and they would not require significant modification of existing engine hardware. Methyl ester of Karanja (KME) derived through transesterification process. Experimental investigations have been carried out to examine properties, performance and emissions of different blends ( KB10,KB20, KB30, KB40 and KB50) of KME. However, its diesel blends showed reasonable efficiencies, lower smoke, CO and HC.

Abstract: This work investigates the potential of penetration, in terms of bituminous prime coat, of an asphalt mixture produced adding Soy Biodiesel [BIO] to the Asphalt Cement [AC] to be used in low traffic volume roads in the state of Ceara, Brazil. The main objective of this investigation was finding a less polluting alternative, by replacing kerosene, usually applied as diluent of AC in the traditional mixture CM-30. Therefore, a comparative study was made between the traditional binder [CM-30] and the proposed mixture [40% of Soy Biodiesel and 60% of AC 50/70], named as AC/BIO. Both tested binders were used in specimens made by the stabilization of a sandy soil, adding 50% and 60% of construction and demolition waste, resulting in two different soil-aggregate mixtures. The research considered some factors that influence the extent of penetration of the prime coat: moisture content of the base, type and volume of binder used and compaction energy. The characterization of the materials used in this research included tests such as the gradation of the aggregates, CBR and Resilient Modulus of the mixtures soil/aggregate, viscosity Saybolt-Furol and penetration of the binders (traditional and AC/BIO) in the samples of soil/aggregate. The results showed that the penetration potential of the AC/BIO mixture was similar to the CM-30 keeping the technical viability.

Abstract: Biodiesel from a high free fatty acid (FFA) mixed crude palm oil (MCPO) can be produced to high fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) conversion by a two-step process. The first process is an acid-catalyzed esterification to reduce FFA in oil followed by a base-catalyzed transesterification process to produce biodiesel from esterified oil. In this study, the transesterification of esterified oil with methanol in the presence of potassium hydroxide (KOH) was performed in a 1,000 W ultrasonic homogenizer at a low frequency of 18 kHz. The use of high-intensity ultrasound to accelerate the reaction, the high surface power density of 1.62 W.mm-2 and the volumetric acoustic energy of 20 W.mL-1 were fixed. The objective of this study was to determine the various parameters (methanol concentration, KOH concentration, and initial temperature of oil) to produce the FAME conversion. The results showed that over 98 wt.% of FAME could be achieved with 5 g KOH/liter of oil, 15 vol.% of methanol, the total residence time of 20 seconds, and temperature of 30 oC. Moreover, the glycerides were rapidly converted to the FAME within reaction time of 10 seconds when the base-catalyst of 10 g KOH/liter of oil, and 20 vol.% of methanol were used. Consequently, the use of high-intensity ultrasonic irradiation can minimize the chemical cost, electricity cost, and reaction time.