A comparative study on ultrasonic cavitation and mechanical stirring method towards efficient production of biodiesel from non-edible oils and performance testing on a CI engine

Abstract

This paper presents the biodiesel production processes using low frequency ultrasonic energy (24 kHz) and conventional mechanical stirrer method. For this purpose, three different non-edible oils namely kusum, yellow oleander and bitter groundnut oil were used as the biodiesel feedstock. The experiments have been performed for molar ratio (alcohol/oil) 6:1 and 4.5:1, with three different catalyst percentages (0.5%, 0.75% and 1%) of potassium hydroxide. Further an experimental investigation has been carried out on a diesel engine with diesel and biodiesel blends [B10, B20, and B30]. The most significant conclusions are: 1) biodiesel production through ultrasound energy appears to be efficient and time saving; 2) BTE of engine slightly increases when operating on lower blends of biodiesel (up to B10) than that operating on neat diesel. It may be concluded from the experimental investigations that up to 30% of biodiesel blends can be used as a fuel in engine without modification.