An Experimental Study of Bio-Diesel in an Automobile Engine

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 12 | Dec-2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF BIO-DIESEL IN AN AUTOMOBILE ENGINE
Chirag.G1 , Harinath SP2 , Jeevan Gowda
1,2Department of mechanical & NMIT
3Department of mechanical & VKIT
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Abstract— The increasing energy demand along with the expected depletion of fossil fuels and globalwarminghavepromotedto
search for alternative fuels that can be easily obtained from renewable energy resources. There are many reasons as mentioned
above why we should consider more environmentally friendly solutions to satisfythecurrentenergyconsumption. In ordertomeet
the current global requirement bio diesel (diesel + bio fuel) blend can be used. Bio fuel is a renewal energy source which are
produced from living organisms and uses energy from a carbon fixation.
In present experimental study of emission characteristics like carbondioxide(CO2%), carbonmonoxide(CO%), hydrocarbon(HC),
nitrous oxide (NOx), exhaust temperature, fuel consumption rate, and performance of diesel engine at different load is done by
using diesel and bio diesel (50% diesel+50% ungenna bio fuel) blend separately. Hencefromtheabovestudy ithasbeenfoundthat
using bio diesel blend there is a significant reduction in emissions of toxic gases in comparison with diesel.
Keywords— Bio-Diesel, Bio-Diesel blend, experimental study, CO2, CO, HC, NOx
I. INTRODUCTION
It is very essential to look for other energy sources thanfossil fuel whicharemoresecureandproducelessgreenhouse
gas emissions. Bio-diesel, an environment friendly fuel is first choice of consumer and a renewable source of alternative fuel
occupies a great volume of the world’s fuel sector. Due to its clean emission characteristics, availability of continued and
increasing use of petroleum and its limited resources enhances the production of bio-diesel. Considering economic and
environmental benefits, use of bio-diesel is increasing quickly as an alternative fuel of petroleum diesel around the world. A
biofuel uses energy from carbon fixation.
Bio fuel or bio-diesel is generally defined as ester-base fuels (fatty esters) made from animal fats orfromvegetableoil through
a simple transesterification process. Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913) first brought the concept of using vegetable fuel as an engine
fuel that then developed the first engine and ran it with peanut oil vegetable fuel. Vegetable oils are important energy sources
though sometimes vegetable oils may create some problems in engine components. Thisproblemmaybeduetotheirdifferent
molecular structure and volatility from diesel fuel as well as high viscosity compared to diesel fuel [2–4]. It can be rectified
from bio diesel by applying different chemical process such a supercritical, transesterification and catalyst-free process on
vegetable oils. Through this process properties of vegetable oil and molecular structureischangedandfattyacidmethyl esters
is formed which is also known as Bio-diesel fuel. Bio-diesel can produce 4.5 units of energy against every unit of fossil energy
needed to produce biodiesel [5, 6]. Beside this, bio-diesel is nontoxic, biodegradable and safer to breathe [7].Today’s
compression ignition (CI) or diesel engines require clean burning, stablefuel thatoperatesandperformswell undernumerous
conditions. Bio-diesel satisfies all these objectives and is the only alternative fuel that can be used in any unmodified
compression ignition engine [8].
Physicochemical properties of bio-diesel from different sources,suchasoxygencontent,cetanenumber,viscosity, densityand
heat value greatly influence the engine performance and emissions characteristics. Properties of bio-diesel are dependent on
the sources (rapeseed, soya bean, or animal fats) of bio-diesel [3, 4]. . When using bio-diesel (diesel and ungena) is aware of
bio-diesel freezing properties, wipe painted surfaces immediately after contact with bio-diesel, store bio-diesel or bio-diesel
blended soaked rags in a safe place to avoid spontaneous combustion and use the bio-diesel within 1 year.Diesel enginesarea
major source of air pollutions that are now widely known to have bad impact on human health and overall greenhouse gases.
The National Environment Protection Council, the Australian State and Territory Governments have all agreed on a National
Environment Protection Measure for Ambient Air Quality. [9]
The aim of present work is to investigate the engine performances (power, torque, fuel consumption rate) and emissions
(carbon dioxide, un-burnt hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and nitric oxide) of diesel engine using petroleum diesel and bio-
diesel. A comparative study of performance of diesel and bio-fuel is carried out.
© 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 6.171 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 450

II. OBJECTIVES
 To study the use of bio-diesels in unmodiﬁed diesel engines, with speciﬁc reference to performance and emissions
analysis of bio-diesel blends.
 To study the influence of bio-diesel on emissions of HC, CO2 and CO.
 To study fuel consumption of bio-diesel blend and diesel.
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Experiment was conducted in a single cylinder four stroke air cooled vertical diesel engine of 5.9 kW rated power and 1500
rpm rated speed. Accurate measurements of exhaust temperature, fuel flow rate was done. Emissions of Bio Diesel and Diesel
were measured using Gas Analyser. Constant speed load test was conducted on the engine and the measurements above
mentioned were taken under different load.
Fig .1 Schematic of the experimental set up
Experiment schematic is shown above. Set up consists of Airboxofsizeapproximately 500timesthevolumeofenginecylinder.
The idea is to make the air inflow free from any pulsations (which occur due to piston movement) which may affect the
combustion. The engine shaft is attached to the AC generator. Electrical loading is applied to the engine using AC generator.
Temperature and emissions of the exhaust gas are measured using thermocouple and Gas analyser respectively. Current and
voltage generated by AC generator corresponding to the different loads is also measured. While conducting experiment room
conditions have been kept constant, proper ventilation have been provided to make the ambient free from exhaust emission
which may affect the emission reading. First of all diesel is used for experiment. And then under different load conditions
exhaust temperature, exhaust gas emissions, and fuel consumption rate are measured.
Table-1: Engine Specification
Engine type: Vertical, Single Cylinder, air-cooled, Four Stroke
Cycle, Compression Ignition Diesel Engine.
No. of Cylinders : 1 1
Bore & Stroke 110*85 mm
Cubic Capacity 0. 78 ltr
Compression Ratio 18
Rated Output 7.5 KW(hp)
Rated Speed 1500 rpm
Combustion System Direct Injection

IV. BLENDING OF BIO FUEL AND DIESEL
Ungenna (bio fuel) is mixed with petroleum diesel (50% by volume).Bio fuel is more viscous than diesel. Blending
Biodiesel is when you take conventional petroleum diesel and Mix that with biodiesel to give you a biodiesel blend. Biodiesel
can be added in any proportion to the petro-diesel. Biodiesel blends are usually called, for example: B5 biodiesel or B20
Biodiesel or simply just B5 or B20.The numbers is to let you know what the proportion biodiesel to petroleum diesel is. For
Example: B5 biodiesel is 5% biodiesel to 95% petro-diesel & B20 will be 20% Biodiesel to 80% petro-diesel.B100 is not a
biodiesel blend but 100% pure biodiesel. B99 is biodiesel with 1% petroleum diesel added.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The performance of engine is greatly influenced by bio-diesel. Bio-diesel is likely to produce less power withhighfuel
consumption than diesel as the gross calorific value (energycontent)ofbio-diesel islowerthanpetroleumdiesel.Blendsofbio-
diesel with petroleum fuel are widely used in diesel engine although the high viscosity of the fuelscausesfuel flowandignition
problems in un-modified CI (compression ignition) engines and also decreases in power output. The lubricant and oxidative
stability of the bio diesel are much better. By experimentally it has been seen that most of the performance parameters and
emission characteristics are affected by the use of bio diesel. The results of performancesandemissionsof bio-dieselstestedin
this study compared to diesel are presented and discussed in this section, as follows.
Fuel consumption rate
Fig.2 shows the graph of fuel consumption for the bio-diesel and diesel on unmodified diesel engine. Using the
weighting factors designated in the test procedure a value for fuel consumption during each test is found, and then compared
for each fuel. From Fig.2 it can be seen that fuel consumption rate for biodiesel is slightly more than the petroleum diesel.
Fig.2 Fuel Consumption Rate
1) NOX emission
Fig.3 shows the NOx emission for the diesel and bio diesel. From the fig.3 it can be seen that at different loading
condition emission of NOx is slightly less for ungenna bio diesel blend in comparison withpetroleumdiesel.Bymixing50%(by
volume) bio fuel with diesel NOx emission is less which may further decrease by increasing bio fuel ratio.
Fig..3 NOx Emissions

2) Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission
Fig.4 shows the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) for bio diesel blend and diesel. Initially the emission for bio diesel
blend and diesel is almost same but with increase in load emission is more for diesel as compare with bio diesel. It may be
noted that with increase in bio fuel ratio with the petroleum diesel emission of carbon dioxide could be controlled.
Fig.4 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission
3) Carbon monoxide (CO) emission
Fig.5 shows the emission of carbon monoxide for bio diesel blend and diesel. Bio diesel displayedsigniﬁcantdecrease
in CO emissions with increasing blend ratio compared to petroleum diesel. It can be said that bio-diesels having a higher
oxygen content compared to diesel can result in a more complete combustion and leading to less CO in the exhaust
stream.Fig.5, shows the change in CO emissions for blend ratio for the bio-diesels.
Fig.5 Carbon monoxide (CO) emission
(4) Hydrocarbon emission (HC)
The hydrocarbon emissions results for the bio-diesels are shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen from graph that bio diesel
blend reduces the hydrocarbon emissions. By experimental calculations 33.33% hydrocarbon were reduced when bio fuel is
mixed with (50%) diesel. This is a significant reduction.
Fig.6 Hydrocarbon emission (HC)

(5) Exhaust gas temperature
Exhaust temperature graph for bio diesel blend and diesel isshowninfig.7.Itisfoundthatexhaustgastemperature for
biodiesel is slightly less than petroleum diesel.
Fig.7 Exhaust gas Temperature
VI. CONCLUSION
 This study investigated the use of bio-diesels in unmodified diesel engines, with specific reference to performance and
emissions analysis of bio-diesel blends. Overall, Bio-diesel was found to have lower exhaust emissions across the board
compared to petroleum diesel. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
 Emissions of HC and CO2 for bio-diesel decrease with increasing the amount of bio-diesel in their blend, and also CO
emission decreases with increasing the amount of bio-diesel in blend.
 Fuel consumption for bio-diesel blend is higher than diesel. This indicates that fuel consumption is higher for fuel with
lower energy content.
 Bio-diesel blend has lower emission and exhaust gas temperature than diesel.
 NOx emission depends on a number of factors such as bio-diesel type, engine type and test procedure used. In this
experiment bio-diesel shows a decreasing trend with increasing blend ratio.
 Bio-diesels having higher oxygen content can lead less CO emissions with increasing blend ratio due to complete
combustion in the diesel engine.
REFERENCES
[1] Saka S, Isayama Y. A new process for catalyst-free production of bio-diesel Using supercritical methyl acetate. Fuel 2009;
88(7):1307–13.
[2] United States Environmental ProtectionAgency.AcomprehensiveanalysisofBio-diesel impactsonexhaust emissions.EPA
420-P-02-01. Washington, DC: EPA; 2002.
[3] Wu F, Wang J, Chen W, Shuai S. A study on emission performance of a diesel Engine fueled with five typical methyl ester
bio-diesels. Atoms’ Environ 2009; 43:1481–5.
[4] Pradhan A, Shrestha DS, McAloon A, Yee W, Haas M, Duffield JA, et al. Energy Life-cycle assessment of soybean bio-diesel.
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Economic Report, Number 845; 2009.
[5] Bio-diesel Returns More Energy to the Earth, October 22; 2009
[6] National Bio-diesel Board, 2008. What is bio-diesel, viewed 31 July 2008.
[7] About bio-diesel, viewed 31 July 2008. Australian Bio-diesel Group Limited; 2008.
[8] Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts. National standard For biodiesel; 2003
[9] "Biofuels Make a Comeback Despite Tough Economy". World watch Institute. 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2011-08-31.

An Experimental Study of Bio-Diesel in an Automobile Engine

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An Experimental Study of Bio-Diesel in an Automobile Engine