Application of ceramic coating for improving the usage of cottonseed oil in a diesel engine

Abstract

The development of the usability of a pure vegetable oil of cottonseed in diesel engines was intended in this paper. With this purpose, piston surface and valves of the test engine were coated with zirconium oxide (ZrO2) ceramic coating material in order to reduce the heat rejected from the mentioned parts. Then waste cottonseed oil was volumetrically blended with petroleum based diesel fuel by 15% cottonseed oil – 85% petroleum diesel (CO15), 35% cottonseed oil – 65% petroleum diesel (CO35) and 65% cottonseed oil – 35% petroleum diesel (CO65). Previously, the petroleum based diesel fuel with number: 2 (D2) fuel was tested in the normal uncoated single cylinder diesel engine. These blend fuels and D2 were then tested in the coated engine. Results were compared with the results of initial test of D2 in uncoated engine operation. The comparison of all the test results showed that the coating process considerably improved the performance of the test engine for all the test fuels. Besides, every measured pollutant emissions were reduced only except for oxides of nitrogen (NOx). This may certify that the coating process is a reasonable method for using pure vegetable oils in diesel engines provided that the injection process runs well for so long.