Waste Cooking Oil Blends Research Articles

Performance Analysis of a Common-rail Diesel Engine Fuelled with Different Blends of Waste Cooking oil and Gasoil

An experimental campaign was performed to study the behavior of a common-rail Diesel engine in automotive configuration when it is fuelled with blends of Diesel fuel (DF) and waste cooking oil (WCO). In particular the tested fuels are: B20 blend, composed of 20% WCO and 80% DF; B50, composed of 50% WCO and 50% DF; WCO 100% and 100% DF.In order to fuel the engine with fuel having a similar viscosity, this quantity, together with density, has been measured at temperature ranging from rom to about 80̊C. According to these measurements, before fuelling the engine B20 was heated up to 35̊C and B50 to 75̊C.An in-house software was developed to acquire the data elaborated by the electronic control unit.Results show the trend in torque and global efficiency at different gas pedal position (gpp) and different engine speed. The experiments show that larger discrepancies are measured at smaller gpp values, while at larger ones differences become smaller. A similar trend is noticed for engine global efficiency.

Combustion characteristics and engine emissions of a diesel engine fueled with diesel and treated waste cooking oil blends

In this study, waste cooking oil from restaurants was used to produce a renewable and sustainable biodiesel through transesterification process. The Treated Waste Cooking Oil (TWCO) fuel produced has shown very promising chemical and physical properties; most notably; cetane number (∼49) and sulphur content (8 mg/kg). The combustion of conventional diesel and Treated Waste Cooking Oil (TWCO)–diesel blend (50/50 by volume; shown as TD50) was examined at different engine conditions. The combustion of TD50 resulted in a considerable reduction in the smoke opacity and unburnt hydrocarbons associated with an increase in the CO 2 and NO x emissions due to unintentional advance of fuel injection timing, caused by the higher bulk modulus of TD50 fuel. Results indicated an increase in brake specific fuel consumption with simultaneous reduction in the engine thermal efficiency compared to conventional diesel. The lower smoke opacity in the case of TD50 fuel assists NO x reductions by exploiting the higher EGR tolerance of TD50 fuel. Thus, a more encouraging NO x -smoke tradeoff may be selected to reduce both NO x and smoke. The effect of EGR in NO x reduction was more noticeable with TD50 than conventional diesel fuel.

Performance of Untreated Waste Cooking Oil Blends in a Diesel Engine

Untreated waste cooking oil (UWCO) is not a feasible diesel fuel. The major problems in engine operation are reported mainly due to UWCO’s high viscosity. To use UWCO's in diesel engine without modification, it is necessary to make sure that the oils properties must be similar to diesel fuel. In this study, UWCO that has been used several times for frying purposes is investigated for the utilization as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. In order to reduce the viscosity, the UWCO were blend with diesel. Two various blends of UWCO and diesel were prepared and its important properties such as viscosity, density, calorific value and flash point were evaluated and compared with that of diesel. The blends were then tested in a direct injection diesel engine in 10% and 30% v/v blends with a reference diesel fuel. Tests were performed under a set of engine operating conditions. It was found that blending UWCO with diesel reduces the viscosity. Blending of UWCO with diesel has been shown to be an effective method to reduce engine problems associated with the high viscosity of UWCO. The experimental results also show that the basic engine performance such as power output and fuelconsumptions are comparable to diesel and the emissions of CO and NOx from the UWCO/diesel blends were also found slightly higher than that of diesel fuel.