Studies on utilization of different preheated straight vegetables oil in a CI engine

Abstract

Renewable energy befits as an attractive and sustainable solution to compensate for the imbalance in the supply and demand of fossil fuels. Continuous depletion of fossil fuels, price variations and detrimental effect of greenhouse gas emissions are the burning issues in the current scenario. Non-edible vegetable oil can be considered as a comparable alternative to replace conventional diesel fuel. There are some operational issues with straight vegetable oils (SVOs) such as their less calorific value, higher density and higher viscosity etc. which may be dealt with by adopting an appropriate treatment before combustion. Present study has been undertaken on the use of non-edible oils available in the vicinity of the Institute Research Lab. Oils derived from the seeds of Jatropha and Mahua have been preheated to reduce their high viscosity, surface tension and density for meeting the fuel requirements and to use on engines. Experimental and comparative study about the emission and performance parameters has been carried out on a 3.5 KW diesel engine fuelled with preheated straight vegetable oils and diesel fuel. It has been found that at full load the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of preheated straight vegetable oil is lower by about 8–10% as compared to diesel. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) has been found comparable to diesel with a variation of approximately 2-5%. Emission components hydrocarbon and carbon mono oxide have been found to be reduced significantly in case of preheated oils. The results support the use of non-edible straight vegetable oils directly on the engine in preheated form without converting them into biodiesel by transesterification process. This research motivates the rural areas of developing countries to become self-reliant in energy production as most of these areas are enriched with huge amount of vegetation which can be used to produce edible and non-edible vegetable oil.