Renewable Energy: Alcohol based hybrid biofuel from used cooking oil (UCO) fueled in a CI engine

Introduction: Biofuels lays positive impact upon economy the environment (1). Hybrid Biofuel is also one of the types of biofuels which contains many advantages viz. easy production, economical, 100% possible replacement, no pretreatment and environment friendly (3). The present research is focused upon the effects of hybrid biofuel consists of used cooking oil (UCOHBF), ethanol (viscosity modifier) and 2-butanol (surfactant) on CI engine and also compared its effects with biodiesel blends and petrodiesel. Methods: The UCOHBF from UCO: ethanol: 2-butanol was 55:28:17, obtained through titration (1,2). Results & Discussions: Fig. 1 (a) had shown that the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) for UCOHBF shows slightly higher trend to those of petrodiesel and biodiesel blends at part and full engine load. This was due to higher density, viscosity and lower GCV of UCOHBF. Fig. 1(b) had shown that the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for UCOHBF was found slightly lower than UCOB50 and UCOB100 for all load conditions which could be attributed due to low gross calorific value of UCOHBF also the presence of 45% alcohol in UCOHBF. Fig. 1 (c) had shown that the cylinder pressure for UCOHBF follow the same pressure trend to that of petrodiesel and other test blends under all load conditions. Conclusions: The BSEC and BTE are slightly comparable with B100 and lower with petrodiesel. The combustion characteristics of UCOHBF show higher value among other test blends. Keywords: Hybrid biofuel, Engine performance, Combustion analysis, CI Engine, emulsion    References Kumar H, Sarma, AK, Kumar P. A comprehensive review on preparation, characterization, and combustion characteristics of microemulsion based hybrid biofuels. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2019; 117: 109498. Kumar H., Konwar LJ, Aslam M, Sarma, AK. Performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a direct injection VCR CI engine using a Jatropha curcas oil microemulsion: a comparative assessment with JCO B100, JCO B20 and petrodiesel. RSC Advances 2016;6(44): 37646-37655. Kumar H, Sarma, AK, Kumar P. A novel approach to study the effect of cetane improver on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a CI engine fuelled with E20(diesel – bioethanol) blend. Sustainable Chem Pharm 2019; 14: 100185.