Author : George Varghese and P. Mohanan

Diesel engine combustion generates large amounts of oxides of nitrogen due to the presence of oxygen and nitrogen in the combustion chambers at high flame-temperatures. The main component of total cost of producing bio-diesel comprises the cost of raw materials. The use of a low cost feedstock such as Waste Cooking Oil (WCO) can help make biodiesel much cheaper than diesel derived from petroleum sources. Waste cooking oil, which is otherwise wasted, is one of the most economical choices to produce biodiesel (Menga, 2008). In this investigation, Cyclo- Pentane and Cyclo- Hexane were used as blend-components. The scope of this work also includes studies on various fuel-blends of B20 with varying percentages of blend-components, and comparisons to fossil-based diesel. The studies performed also include investigations on the emission characteristics of B20 with blend-components at different loading conditions. The tests performed indicate that the use of B20 with 1.5% cyclo-hexane as a blend-component, resulted in a significant reduction in NOx emissions by 4% when compared to fossil-based diesel, at a normal injection timing of 27.5º before-top dead-center (BTDC), at full-load conditions. It was also observed that the B20 blend with 1% cyclo-pentane possessed the lowest smoke opacity of/by 36% at full-load conditions.

Keywords: Biodiesel, blend component, cyclo- alkane, emission, WCO, trans-esterification.

Article published in International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Sciences 2014, Special Issue-2 (Feb 2014)