SOME EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON BIODIESEL BLENDED WITH LOWER ALCOHOLS

Abstract

Today world is moving towards the sustainable energy sources which are renewable in nature and biodegradable. There are several resources and several means to convert these resources in useful form of energy. But majority of the world energy demand dependent upon the fossil fuel either they are power sector, agricultural sector or transportation sector. Diesel engine is one among the several energy conversion mechanisms which uses fossil fuels for the useful energy need. These Engines have proved their utility in transportation, agriculture and power sector of India. These engines have also proved their utilization for the remote areas which are beyond the reach of grid connectivity. Diesel engine has highest thermal efficiency among internal combustion engines. Nowadays society is concerned for clean and green environment. As a social responsibility biofuels are better alternative to petroleum fuels which are available for limited period. Rules and norms for environmental pollution limit is a better way to protect the environment. Promotion to biofuels such as biodiesel, ethanol etc. as a transportation fuel is a better way in this direction. Vegetable oils have always been considered as a good alternative. The transesterified vegetable oils, popularly known as biodiesel are one of the popular modes of usage in diesel engines. However, one of the major outcomes of biodiesel usage in diesel engines is the increased emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) as documented by numerous research articles. This problem can be sort-out by blending of ethanol in biodiesel due to cooling action of ethanol during combustion. Biodiesel derived from Linseed oil has been considered as a sustainable substitute to diesel fuel. Linseed is found in many parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharastra, Punjab & Gujarat. Since it is not used as edible oil in many part of country, so it can be used to drive diesel engine without any problem of wastage of food resource. Similarly ethanol is a v high oxygen content (35%) renewable bio fuel which can be used for CI engine as a blend with biodiesel. Very less research is done on the Ethanol-Biodiesel blend as a fuel for C I engine. The problems associated with linseed oils are the high viscosity & low volatility. The issue of high viscosity needs to be resolved for its long term utilization in diesel engine. Due to high viscosity, there are two strategies for using linseed oil as fuel for use in diesel engine. The first one is to modify the engine to adapt to the fuel and the second one is to process the fuel to adapt to the engine or blending. Production of biodiesel from linseed oil and then blending of ethanol in this biodiesel is a better option due to reduced viscosity and enhanced volatility of blend. India is fourth in the production of linseed oil in the world and largest producer of sugarcane in the world. These two points pushed me to work on the linseed biodiesel and ethanol blends. It was found that blends have better BTE than diesel, lower emissions such as NOx, unburned HC and PM. All such characteristics attribute to use low ethanol blend with biodiesel. The present work aims at performance & emission evaluation of blends of Ethanol- Linseed Biodiesel in a diesel engine. The performance & emission characteristics of exhaust gases from the engine are analyzed and compared with diesel. The experimental result shows that fuel consumption & power output are comparable to diesel fuel. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), HC & PM are lower than diesel fuel.