Biodiesel From Coconut Oil: A Renewable Alternative Fuel For Diesel Engine
Biodiesel From Coconut Oil: A Renewable Alternative Fuel For Diesel Engine
Biodiesel From Coconut Oil: A Renewable Alternative Fuel For Diesel Engine
Bio-fuel,
Renewable
Energy,
I. INTRODUCTION
UEL and energy crisis and the concern of the society for
the depleting worlds non-renewable energy resources led
to a renewed interest in the quest for alternative fuels. One of
the most promising alternatives fuel is the vegetable oils and
their derivatives. The first use of vegetable oil in a
compression ignition engine was first demonstrated through
Rudolph Diesel who used peanut oil in his diesel engine [1].
The use of oils from coconut, soybean, sunflower, safflower,
peanut, linseed, rapeseed and palm oil amongst others have
been attempted. The long term use of vegetable oils led to
injector coking and the thickening of crankcase oil which
resulted in piston ring sticking.
Therefore, vegetable oils are not used in SI engines because
of endurance issues [2].
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B. Blends
Blends of biodiesel and conventional hydrocarbon-based
diesel are products most commonly distributed for use in the
retail diesel fuel marketplace. [12] Much of the world uses a
system known as the "B" factor to state the amount of
biodiesel in any fuel mix:
100% biodiesel is referred to as B100, while
20% biodiesel, 80% petro diesel is labeled B20
5% biodiesel, 95% petro diesel is labeled B5
2% biodiesel, 98% petro diesel is labeled B2
C. Transesterification Process
Coconut oil like any other vegetable oils and animal fats are
triglycerides, inherently containing glycerin. The biodiesel
process (transesterification) turns the oils into esters,
separating out the glycerin from the main product
(biodiesel).The glycerin sinks to the bottom and the biodiesel
floats on top and can be decanted off. The process is called
transesterification, which substitutes alcohol for the glycerin
in a chemical reaction, using a catalyst.
H
R1-CO-O-C-H
R1-CO-O-R
R2-CO-O-C-H + 3R-OH
R3-CO-O-C-H
H
Oil of fats
Alcohol
NaOH
HO-CH2
R2-CO-O-R + HO-CH2
R3-CO-O-R
HO-CH2
Biodiesel
Glycerin
200
200
200
200
9.67
9.37
8.84
8.75
High
High
Medium
Low
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A heater was used which had been kept always 35C for
removing the water from biodiesel. After the process finally
the biodiesel was collect and its properties were tested in the
laboratory.
III. PROPERTIES OF BIODIESEL AND THEIR BLENDS ANALYSIS
Biodiesel produced from coconut oil has comparable fuel
properties with the conventional fossil diesel. A comparative
study of fuel properties with the conventional fossil diesel,
neat biodiesel and their blends have been carried out in this
work to find out suitable blending of biodiesel. In the study
B40, B60, B80 and B100 blend have been prepared to
compare the fuel properties of different blends.
A. Heating Value
Heating value indicates the energy density of the fuel. In our
study, ASTM 2382 method has been applied to measure the
heating value of biodiesel and their blends. Table 2 shows the
heating value of diesel, neat biodiesel and their blends in
MJ/kg.
TABLE II
COMPARISON OF HEATING VALUE OF DIFFERENT FUELS
Fuel
Heating Value (MJ/kg)
Fossil diesel
Neat Biodiesel B100
B80
B60
B40
45.71
40.37
41.44
42.97
44.13
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Model
Method of starting
Type
Cylinder dia
Piston stroke
Nominal speed
Nominal power
Cooling system
Rotation
Fuel filter
Lube oil filter
TABLE III
ENGINE SPECIFICATION
ZS1110
Hand starting
Horizontal, 4- stroke, 1 cylinder
70mm
75mm
2600 rpm
3HP
Air cooled
Anti clockwise
Present
Present
B. Experimental Setup
The experimental setup consisted of engine test bed with
fuel supply system and different measuring and metering
devices with the engine. A preheating system was made in
diesel engine test bed with the help of heater and thermo
couple for measuring the temperature. A control unit was used
to set temperature and automatic control of heater .Separate
tank had been used for direct use of coconut oil with mixing
with diesel. Single tank has been used for testing biodiesel
performance and a typical heater was used to preheat the oil
both bio diesel and the direct using of oil. Brake horse power
(bhp), Brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc), brake thermal
efficiency, exhaust gas temperature of the engine was
measured for Diesel, B100, B80, B60 and B40 blends. For
measuring bhp, brake type dynamometer had been used. Test
was run by varying fuel flow rate which was measured in kg/s.
Fig. 4 shows the relation in between fuel flow rate and brake
thermal efficiency (b) for different fuels. bsfc is a measure of
overall efficiency of the engine. bsfc is inversely related with
the efficiency. So, lower the value of bsfc, higher is the overall
efficiency of the engine. However, for different fuels with
different heating values, the bsfc values are misleading and
hence brake thermal efficiency is employed when the engines
are fueled with different types of fuel. From the figure, it is
evident that bsfc for biodiesel is always higher and b is always
lower than that of diesel fuel. This is because biodiesel has
lower heating value than conventional diesel fuel. One other
cause for lower b for biodiesel blends is poor atomization
which is attributed to higher density and kinematic viscosity of
biodiesel blends.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of bsfc with flow rate for different
fuels. bsfc for biodiesel blends is higher at lower fuel flow
rate. bsfc decreases with the increase of fuel flow rate. It also
observed that the bsfc increases with higher blends. This is
mainly due to the relationship among volumetric fuel injection
system, fuel specific gravity, viscosity and heating value.
As a result, more biodiesel blend is needed to produce the
same amount of energy due to its higher density and lower
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[7]
[8]
V. COST ANALYSIS
The present cost of running a diesel engine with biodiesel
blends derived from mustard oil are given in table 9.
[9]
TABLE IV
COST FOR DIESEL AND BIODIESEL BLENDS
Fuel
Cost (Taka/ liter)
[10]
Diesel
B40
B60
B80
B100
70.00
88.00
100.00
112.00
124.00
[11]
[12]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
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