Development of Biofuel for Diesel Engines of the Fishing Vessels from Coconut Oil

Abstract

Biofuels are made from vegetable oils and animal fats, which have great potential as an alternative to traditional fuels to reduce environmental pollution. In addition to functioning as an oxygen booster for combustion, biofuels are renewable. Moreover, another advantageous characteristic of biofuels is the ease of mixing them with traditional fuel, without any need for complicated equipment. However, there are many factors affecting the application of biofuel to engines such as the geography of each country or region, its climate, and ingredients to serve human needs for food, while biofuels are developed from many different sources of raw materials. Vietnam is a country located in the tropical monsoon region, thus having great potential in developing raw materials for biofuel production. The main raw material sources, for now, are fish fat, jatropha oil, and coconut oil. Among them, coconut oil is considered one of the abundant raw materials, because the natural and social conditions in Vietnam are suitable and favorable for the growth of coconut trees. In this paper, the development of coconut oil production will be presented, as well as the method of using coconut oil (C10) as fuel for diesel engines of fishing vessels. The experimental research results show that the amount of soot emission from diesel engines using C10 fuel is lower compared to that of engines using traditional fuel (DO).