Experimental investigation of a small agricultural diesel engine performance using community biodiesel from wild trees

Nigran Homdoung Nigran Homdoung,Rameshprabu Ramaraj Rameshprabu Ramaraj,Natthawud Dussadee Natthawud Dussadee,Kittikorn Sasujit Kittikorn Sasujit

doi:10.54279/mijeec.v2i1.244946

Nigran Homdoung Nigran Homdoung, Rameshprabu Ramaraj Rameshprabu Ramaraj + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.54279/mijeec.v2i1.244946

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Abstract

The increasing consumption and demand for fossil fuels have more significance than before alarm above its lessening rate and for that reason, stimulated the actions are needed to challenge the issue with an efficient and less polluting alternative fuel for diesel. This study evaluated the performance of an 8.2 kW small diesel engine using three fuels, namely diesel, waste cooking oil biodiesel and wild tree biodiesel, such as granadilla oil biodiesel (GBD) and tung oil biodiesel (TBD). The experimental engine was tested at 1,500 rpm of constant engine speed and 20–80% of engine load. The specific fuel consumption, brake specific energy consumption, brake mean sufficient pressure, brake thermal efficiency, exhaust emission and temperature were evaluated. It was found that the small diesel engine worked well using wild trees biodiesel. The brake means effective pressures were lower by 5–8% and thermal brake efficiency was decreased in the range of 9–15%, compared with diesel fuel. The exhaust emission was lower than Thailand’s industrial standard and slightly higher than waste cooking oil biodiesel and diesel fuel operation. The operation of biodiesel from wild trees is suitable for farmers and is considered feasible for local communities in the future.

Highlights

Global energy demand for the past five decades is rising aberrantly and it has become a vital concern for the researchers to confirm energy safety and environmental security (Ramaraj et al, 2016)
The higher brake specific energy consumption of wild tree biodiesel was due to the high viscosity of the fuel, resulting in larger fuel droplet size and low spray from the injector with incomplete combustion (Kumar et al, 2015), which led to high specific energy consumption
The small diesel engine operated on wild tree biodiesel appeared to work well, but slightly lower than diesel engine operation

Summary

Introduction

Global energy demand for the past five decades is rising aberrantly and it has become a vital concern for the researchers to confirm energy safety and environmental security (Ramaraj et al, 2016). The Royal Thai Government wishes to step up its efforts to increase the share of renewable energy in the country to 30% in 2036 (Sitdhiwej, 2016). Biodiesel is an alternative energy that the Royal Thai Government supports with the production target of 14 million liters/day, while the current production is only 6.5 million liters/day and all raw materials are derived from oil palm (Nupueng et al, 2018; Heo et al, 2019). Attempts were made to use jatropha or oil palm to replace the fossil fuels with high interest, but recently it was found that the plants produced relatively low yields and had high operating costs, leading to the delay in development (Prueksakorn et al, 2010). While oil palm had a conflict with food crops and the proportion used to produce energy fuels was limited (Adeyemi et al, 2011)

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