Study on Combustion Performance of Palm Oil Biodiesel Blend

Abstract

The world today is adversely affected by the rapid growth of various industries which use fossil diesel fuel as a main source to power their respective industries. As such, these natural resources are increasingly reduced thus resulting in price increments. A study was conducted to find a way to develop alternative energy sources that are environmentally friendly and renewable. One of the potential sources of energy is palm oil. Therefore, this project is intended to look at the effect of combustion of biodiesel from palm oil which is carotino palm oil. This project will include the study of the physical characteristics of the fuel such as density, viscosity, and surface tension. In terms of combustion, it includes emissions during the combustion process, the temperature profile and the flame length. Several carotino biodiesel blends have been made, i.e. B0, B10, B20, B30, B40, B50, and B100 whereby each blend will be burned in the combustion chamber in three conditions which are at equivalent ratios of 0.6, 1, and 1.4. Temperature profile, gas emissions, and flame length for every combustion test will be recorded. An overall view from this test shows that B10 biodiesel blend shows a high potential to replace diesel due to its high energy content although the gaseous emissions are not the lowest.