EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIO ON BIODIESEL PRODUCTION THROUGH MICROWAVE IRRADIATION

Abstract

As the levels of pollution rise, so does interest in investigating sustainable energy sources. Governing authorities throughout the world are embracing more dependable and sustainable techniques of dealing with energy than just using non-renewable energy sources, with biofuel driving the investigation farther. The biodiesel derived from cottonseed and other biodiesel sources may eventually replace depleting diesel reserves. On the other hand, there is not enough of awareness regarding the process for producing biodiesel using microwave irradiation methodology as well as its combustion impact and performance analysis in compression ignition (CI) engines. To begin with, a domestic microwave oven was modified to keep the entire process economically viable. Three different feedstocks which are available in sufficient quantity in the surroundings were chosen, and its process parameters were defined and improved using the statistical software Minitab 17. It was found during the literature review that usage of catalysts also affects the biodiesel yield and also the ecology of the environment therefore a catalyst prepared from aluminium foil was used to process the waste cooking oil for obtaining the biodiesel from it. Design of experiment (DoE) has provided different combinations to reduce the number of trials and maximise the yield. Different levels of input power (200W, 300W, 400W and 500W), methanol: oil molar ratio (3:1 to 15:1) concentration of catalyst, duration of reaction, speed of the turntable (10 to 40 rpm) as well as speed of the cooling fan (800.1000,1200,1500 rpm) of microwave reactor were selected as useful variable process parameters. The pilot study of biodiesel manufacturing revealed that a high-quality yield of 99.5 % was obtained in 11 minutes with an input power of 500W, methanol: oil molar ratio of 4.5:1, catalyst-1%, turntable and the cooling fan speed of 40 rpm and 1500 rpm respectively. During the conversion of cottonseed biodiesel CBD with microwave (MW) methodology from cottonseed oil, there was a saving of around 56% in the duration of the reaction or the time taken including a yield nearly 63% higher than the conventional magnetic stirrer (MS) process. For kalonji oil, parameters included system wattage, reaction time, stirrer speed, methanol to oil molar ratio and catalyst loading. The optimum values for different vi parameters were found to be 500W, 20 minutes, 30 rpm, 9:1 and 1.5(wt%) respectively, for this study. The kalonji biodiesel maximum yield was recorded as 95.47 percent. The prepared catalyst NaOH/γ-Al2O3 (3% by wt. of oil) has been used with waste cooking oil (WCO) and methyl alcohol having a molar ratio of 15:1 for a reaction time of 1 hour in microwave based processor. The biodiesel yield has been recorded as 98%. Finally, different blends (B10, B20 and B30) of cottonseed biodiesel and diesel were prepared and tested to run a multi cylinder CI engine. The examination of blends of cottonseed biodiesel in CI engine revealed that this biodiesel prepared through microwave assistance can be used suitably without any modification in engine. Test run indicated that the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of blended fuel increased by about 15% in comparison to fossil –diesel at lower loads. As the load percentage is raised the BSFC fell down consistently however, found to be higher than fossil –diesel owing to higher viscosity, higher density and lower heating value of the blended fuel as compared with diesel. The brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of biodiesel blends observed to be slightly lesser as compared to diesel and blended biodiesel fuel. However, the proportion between the drop in BTE and the rise in biodiesel content is not equal. A 20-25% reduction in concentration of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon (THC) emissions has been observed when operating with the blends of biodiesel. The extra oxygen present in the biodiesel fuel, boosting combustion in the cylinder, may be the cause of the decrease in CO and THC emissions from biodiesel and its mixes. It is found to be one of the promising fuel for CI engines because utilizing this fuel all the emissions were reduced to a great extent except the nitrogen oxide (NO) emission. Which could have been controlled by some other methods such as intake air temperature management, controlling with injection timing and exhaust gas recirculation etc.