Papers by Keyword: Biodiesel

Abstract: Biodiesel is the alternate fuel which is derived from renewable sources either is vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel is non-toxic, have higher biodegradability, free of sulphur, no aromatics and its oxygen content of about 10-11% which is usually not contained in diesel fuel. These characteristics thus predominantly influences to the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) in the exhaust gas. Purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of fuel additive, oil palm blended fuel, engine speed and test load conditions on the exhaust emissions and engine performance. The engine speed was varied from 1500 to 3000 rpm, load test condition varied by dynapack chassis dynamometer in 0, 50 and 100% and blends of 5(B5), 10(B10) and 15vol%(B15) palm oil with the diesel fuel. Increased of blends ratio with same mixing booster quantity can improve the engine performance, combustion process and give less CO emission. However, this condition tends to produce high NOx production due to higher oxygenated fuel in biodiesel content.

Abstract: This study investigated the effect of types of storage container used to store biodiesel blend (B5) under different storage duration and environment. The biodiesel samples were stored in plastic and glass container under indoor condition with exposure to fluorescent light for 12 weeks. These samples were monitored and the properties tests were recorded for weekly basis. The effects of storage conditions on properties of biodiesel, experimental testing on density, viscosity, acid value, water content and flash point were discussed in detail. Analysis of this study showed that different storage duration, condition and container used gave a significant effect toward the changes of water content, acid value and viscosity. Sample stored in a glass container under indoor without being exposed to any form of light condition recorded the best quality while sample stored in a plastic container under outdoor condition had the worst quality. A long period of storage would decrease the quality of biodiesel due to exposure to direct sunlight, oxidization between ambient oxygen and double bond biodiesel, hydrolysis process between the ambient air and methyl ester and condensation within the storage tank.

Abstract: In this paper, storage effect on biodiesel properties for high blending ratio and the emission are evaluated. The blend level of biodiesel is denoted as B, followed by the percentages of pure biodiesel. The samples used are conventional diesel (STD), B80, B90 and B100 were stored at ambient temperature (24 °C) for nine week. The properties of biodiesel, acid value, flash point, viscosity, density and water content were measured according to ASTM D6751 biodiesel fuel standard. Results show there are no significant effects on it properties while stored in long duration at ambient temperature. Meanwhile, increasing biodiesel ratio is found to enhance the combustion process, resulting in decreased the HC for emissions.

Abstract: The depletion of fossil fuels as well as the rises of greenhouse gases had caused most government worldwide to follow the international energy policies for the use of biodiesel. One of the economical sources for biodiesel production is waste cooking oil. The use of waste cooking oil is more sustainable if they can perform similarly to conventional diesel fuel. This paper deals with the experimental study carried out to evaluate the engine performance and exhaust emission of diesel engine operated by biodiesel from waste cooking oil at various engine speed. The biodiesel used are known as B5, which contains of 5% of waste cooking oil and 95% of diesel fuel. The other one is B20, which contains of 20% of waste cooking oil plus 80% of diesel. Diesel was used as a comparison purposes. The results show that power and torque for B5 give the closest trend to diesel. In terms of heat release, diesel still dominates the highest value compared to B5 and B20. For exhaust emission, B5 and B20 showed improvement in the reduction of NO_x and PM.

Abstract: Particulate matter (PM) is one of the major pollutants emitted by diesel engine which have adverse effects on human health. Accordingly, many researches have been done to find alternative fuels that are clean and efficient. Biodiesel is preferred as an alternative source for diesel engine which produces lower PM than diesel fuel. However, the manufacturing cost of biodiesel from vegetable oil is expensive. Therefore, using waste cooking oil (WCO) for biodiesel would be more economical and sustainable solution. The characteristics of direct injection diesel engine in term of the PM have been investigated experimentally in this study. The experiments were conducted using single cylinder diesel engine with different speed (1200 rpm, 1500 rpm, 1800 rpm, 2100 rpm, 2400 rpm) at constant load. PM emission of WCO B100 and diesel fuel was compared and the effect of PM components such as soluble organic fraction (SOF) and soot were studied. The result showed WCO B100 reduces the PM emission at all engine speed. Furthermore, both fuels showed highest reduction of PM concentration at moderate engine speed of 1500 rpm.

Abstract: In this work, two types of optimization problems which are crucially related to batch reactor operation are considered. First problem is to maximize the conversion and second problem is to minimize the batch time. Both problems are solved using sequential quadratic programming (SQP) available in Aspen Plus. The manipulated variables i.e. reactor temperature and amount of palm oil are optimized simultaneously based on the specified objective function and equality constraint. Effect of intervals for both optimization problems are also evaluated in this paper. The results show that in maximizing conversion, the number of intervals did not significantly affect the amount of conversion. Meanwhile in minimizing batch time, the introduction of intervals was positively reduced the reactor temperature but negatively minimize the batch time.

Abstract: Transesterification method was carried out in biodiesel production from cooking oil (CO). Calcium oxide (CaO) was selected as the best catalyst. This study investigated the effects of percentage conversion of oil to biodiesel from methanol to oil molar ratio and catalyst amount. Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) test method was used to analyze the surface area. The results obtained showed that using 200°C calcined CaO catalyst, 76.67 % biodiesel was successfully converted from oil. This indicates that the cooking oil (CO) has potential to become a future source of biodiesel. 0.5 w/w% catalyst dosages, 3:5 oil to methanol molar ratio and 65°C reaction temperature are the best condition for the biodiesel conversion from oil. This study also shows that conversion of cooking oil is significantly affected by methanol to oil molar ratio and catalyst amount.

Abstract: Magnetic catalysts are easily removed from the reaction process, thereby reducing the wastewater generation. Therefore, the study proposes to evaluate the performance of the nanomagnetic catalyst Ni_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄ in the transesterification reaction of the soybean oil to produce biodiesel, varying processing conditions (temperature, molar ratio of oil:alcohol and catalyst amount) on the catalytic reaction. The catalyst was synthesized by combustion reaction and characterized by XRD, BET, magnetic measurements and gas chromatography. The results revealed the inverse spinel phase formation, type B(AB)₂O₄, with isotherm profile classified as type V with hysteresis loop of type 3 (H3), and surface area of ​​48.39 m²g^-1. The magnetic hysteresis curve showed a characteristic behavior of soft magnetic material with saturation magnetization value of 55 emu/g. Chromatographic analysis confirmed that the magnetic nanoparticles are catalytically active and that the processing conditions directly influence the conversion into esters.

Abstract: To develop new clean energy has become an urgent task for many countries forced by the energy and environment crisis. To make biodiesel from sewage sludge is one of the solutions. In this study, biodiesel production from sewage sludge by in situ transesterification was discussed. The solvent is methanol and catalyst is sulfuric acid. In-situ transesterification, has many merits over conventional transesterification reaction such as it simply the procedure by skipping the step of lipid extraction and as a result cost can be saved. That is, the steps — sludge dissolved, lipid extraction and transesterification reactions — take place simultaneously. Methanol acts as an extraction solvent and as an esterification reagent as well. Experiments were conducted to determine the optimal parameters of in-situ transesterification for maximizing the yield of biodiesel, which are methanol to sludge mass ratio, acid concentration and temperature. The optimum synthesis condition was determined by orthogonal test L₁₆ (4³), and it was found that an optimum biodiesel yield can be obtained from sewage sludge by in-situ transesterification (16.6%) at methanol to sludge mass ratio 10:1(w/w), H₂SO₄ concentration 5% (v/v), and temperature 65°C. Temperature, H₂SO₄ concentration, and methanol to sludge mass ratio in sequence had significant influence on FAMEs yield. The FAMEs in the product were analyzed by GC-MS and the purity can be higher than 96%.

Abstract: Biodiesel purification from the crude biodiesel product has attracted much attention in recent years, and one low cost and simple purification process is urgent to explore. The separation of methyl palmitate from the crude biodiesel products is a key point. In this work, a series of choline chloride based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) is explored as a solvent for separation of methyl palmitate from the simulated biodiesel product. The work showed that the choline chloride-ethylene glycol DES had a excellent effect on the separation of methyl palmitate, and high purity of methyl palmitate were obtained with the choline chloride to ethlene glycol ratio decrease or with the choline chloride-ethylene glycol DES to biodiesel ratio increase.