Experimental investigation of CI engine fueled with renewable heterogeneous catalyst-based biodiesel

Introduction:  Biodiesel generally shows 1.5 times higher viscosity than petroleum diesel and this results in failure during long term operations of CI engine (1). In this analysis, used cooking oil (UCO)-based biodiesel was produced with the help of renewable heterogeneous catalyst in a high-pressure high temperature reactor for high viscosity reduction and tested it on a single cylinder four stroke CI engine. Musa balbisiana Colla underground stem (MBCUS) ash was used as a renewable heterogeneous catalyst. Methods: Biodiesel was prepared in a 2 L capacity, high-pressure high temperature (HPHT) reactor with 5 wt% of MBCUS at temp 275°C, under pressure (H2) of: 1 MPa and oil to methanol molar ratio was 1:9. Results & Discussions: Fig. 1(a) illustrates that the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) for UCOB20 was almost comparable with petrodiesel. This was due to the oxygenated nature UCOB20 which tends to higher combustion efficiency even after 20% replacement from petrodiesel (2,3). Fig 1(b) depicts that the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of UCOB20 was slightly lower than petrodiesel. This may be due to lower GCV of UCOB20 in comparison with petrodiesel, which results lower cylinder pressure at same fuel doses (4). Fig, 1(c) depicts that the maximum cylinder pressure for UCOB10, UCOB20, UCOB50, UCOB100 and petrodiesel was 57.50 bar @370° crank angle (CA), 59.49 bar @370° CA, 58.60 371° CA, 58.88 bar @ 371CA, 65.43 bar @371° CA, respectively. Conclusions: BTE and BSFC of UCOB20 were almost comparable with petrodiesel. Combustion delay was short for UCOB20, also the combustion characteristics reflect superior combustion. Keywords: Heterogeneous catalyst; Combustion analysis; Biodiesel; CI engine; Used cooking oil References Singh N, Kumar H, Jha MK, Sarma AK. Complete heat balance, performance, and emission evaluation of a CI engine fueled with Mesua ferrea methyl and ethyl ester’s blends with petrodiesel. J Therm Anal Calorim 2015; 122: 907–916. Kumar H, Sarma, AK, Kumar P. A comprehensive review on preparation, characterization, and combustion characteristics of microemulsion based hybrid biofuels. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 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.