A study on the use of pure palm oil (biodiesel-DO) as an alternative fuel on the fuel supply system of marine diesel engines

Abstract

The biodiesel used as an alternative fuel for diesel engines is well- known, however the price of the bio-diesel is still higher than conventional diesel oil (DO) by 10% to 15% depending on a kind of bio-oil and a country producing the bio-diesel. One of idea to reduce the price of bio-diesel is to use the pure bio-oil as fuel for marine diesel engines, because to use the pure bio-oil as fuel without the esteritification process can reduce the price of bio-fuel. At present time, some experts in some countries who have been carrying out experiments on the use of pure bio-oil produced from rape seeds, sunflower seeds... as fuel for marine diesel engines have achieved important results. In recent years, at Vietnam Maritime University we also have been using the pure palm oil and its blended fuel (Palm oil and DO) as fuel for marine diesel engines in laboratory and on board of ships. The blended fuel is a mixing fuel of the pure palm oil and diesel oil with content of pure palm oil by 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 35%. In this paper, we would like to present some results from our experiments to investigate the impacts of using the palm oil and its blended fuel on the important technical features of the fuel supply system of marine diesel engines such as the fuel supply amount for one cycle, fuel supplying pressure, ignition delay time and so on. The results from the research will be good fundamental parameters to support proper operation of marine diesel engines using bio-oil and blended fuels as alternative fuel in near future.