ALTERNATIVE FUEL FOR I.C. ENGINE

ALTERNATIVE FUEL FOR I.C. ENGINE

ABSTRACT

Vegetable oils and animal fats in their raw form have high viscosities and this makes them unsuitable as fuels in diesel engines. Transesterification is one of the well-known processes by which fats and oils are converted into biodiesel. The reaction often makes use of an acid or a base catalyst.

In this study, Mahua oil (Madhuca indica oil) was transesterifed to obtain biodiesel using acid catalyst. Mahua oil was transesterified using sulfuric acid and methanol/ethanol. Higher catalyst concentration (6 %by volume) produces biodiesel with lower viscosity, specific gravity and with a higher yield in a short reaction time. The best process condition was found to be 6 % vol. of sulfuric acid with 150 % excess alcohol, which gave a yield of around 95 % in the reaction time of 5hrs.

The mahua alkyl esters made from above optimized process used in a diesel engine for emission study. Results showed that brake thermal efficiency of Mahua oil ethyl ester was comparable with diesel and it was observed that 28.59% for diesel where as 30.30% and 25.15% for mahua oil methyl ester (MOME) and mahua oil ethyl ester (MOEE) respectively. Emissions of hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO and Bosch smoke number (BSU) was comparatively lower than that of diesel fuel.

The ester-based fuel emits less pollutant compared to diesel without affecting the performance of the engine. Based on this study, esters of mahua oil could be used a substitute for diesel.

INTRODUCTION

Research on vegetable oils as diesel fuel was conducted at least 100 years ago but interest aged because of cheap and plentiful supplies of petroleum fuels. These petroleum fuels are substantially concentrated in areas of political instability, which leads to occasional supply problems. In addition, continuous increase in petroleum prices due to more demand and stringent emission norms, have rekindled interest in renewable vegetable oil as fuel. Renewable fuel like vegetable oils take away more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during their production than is added by combustion. Therefore, it alleviates the increasing carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere.

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