AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON HIGH FFA KUSUM (SCHLEICHERA OLEOSA) OIL BIODIESEL PRODUCTION AND ITS PERFORMANCE TESTING

Abstract

Diesel is being used as a main fuel in the field of transportation and power generation in industries, agriculture etc. throughout the world. It is one of the highest consumable among petroleum products in India. In India almost 70% to 80% of the crude oil is being imported from different countries. It is expected that the remaining 20% of crude oil available in India will cease to exist within 30 to 40 years. Thus, there is an urgent need to expand the supply of alternative fuels, including bio-diesel to reduce the dependency on imported oil. Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oil (edible & non edible) and animal fats. The methylester of vegetable oil, known as biodiesel are becoming increasingly popular because of their low environmental impact and its potential as a green alternative fuel. They would not require any significant modification of existing diesel engine design. At present, biodiesel is commercially produced from the seeds of nonedible vegetables such as Thumba, Jatropha, Karanja etc.. The biodiesel is produced by esterification process either by adding acidic or alkaline or both (acidic & alkaline) catalysts. The kusum seed oil is a nonedible feed stock, with high FFA content. In present experimental study biodiesel is produced from kusum seed oil, using two step esterification process which involves addition of acidic and alkaline catalysts. Further the present work investigates the performance of kusum biodiesel blends with petrodiesel in a four stroke, four cylinder, compression ignition (CI) engine. The biodiesel blends showed higher brake specific fuel consumption, lower brake thermal efficiency and slightly lower brake power. Using kusum biodiesel blends with diesel or other conventional fossil fuels, reduces exhaust emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur oxides (SOx), and unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC).