Waste to energy: Production of poultry-based fat biodiesel and experimental assessment of its usability on engine behaviors

Abstract

High volatility in fuel prices, energy security issues, and concerns about rising emissions have always driven researchers to search for renewable alternative fuels. Therefore, researchers have agreed on the idea that biodiesel fuels obtained from the various feedstocks have been the best alternative to conventional fuels. Accordingly, in the present research, the chicken oil biodiesel is first produced with esterification, and then transesterification methods, and then it is blended with conventional diesel fuel at volumetric ratios of 25, 50, 75, and 100%. In the experiments, a compression ignition engine is loaded from 0 to 100% with intervals of 25% at a rated speed of 3000 rpm. The paper intends to observe how the fuel properties changed and to discuss the influences of the produced chicken oil methyl ester on the engine behaviors (combustion, performance, and emission). The results demonstrated that blending of chicken oil methyl ester into diesel fuel reduces engine mean effective pressure and thermal efficiency by 35 and 23%, respectively by increasing the specific fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperature by 25 and 29%, respectively, due to the lower calorific value of chicken biodiesel. On the other hand, with the blending of chicken biodiesel, significant reductions in CO, HC, and smoke opacity are found to be 12, 47, and 48%, respectively, but it results in an increment of 25% for NOx emission. Considering the combustion parameters, it is noticed that peak cylinder pressure, heat release rate, and ignition delay decline by 8, 10, and 19%, respectively, for methyl ester compared to conventional diesel fuel. In the conclusion, the paper clearly reports that chicken methyl ester can be utilized as a fuel substitute in diesel engines without any modification, and it results in considerable reductions in some significant exhaust emissions.