Production, characterization and performance of biodiesel blends of Sesame oil and Bitter almond oil as an alternative fuel in CI engine

Abstract

Biodiesel is an eco-friendly, alternative renewable fuel prepared from the vegetable oils and animal fats. As global demand of energy rises and limited source of fossil fuel, research activity is directed towards development of alternative of diesel fuels more and more. There are various advantages to utilize the biodiesel as renewable energy sources. The most benefits of alternative fuel are its biodegradability, renewability and potential to reduce exhaust emissions. The experimental work presented in this thesis is mainly divided into two main parts. In the first part, transesterification process had been utilized for methyl esters production and testing the fuel properties of selected oils and their methyl esters. The present work discusses the feasibility of transesterification of bitter almond oil and sesame oil. The influence of process variables on product yield of the transesterification process has also been studied. A lot of research has already been carried out on karanja and jatropha oil but not on bitter almond oil and sesame oil. In the second part, the performance and exhaust emissions of a 3.5 kW constant speed VCR diesel engine were studied by running the engine with diesel and biodiesel- diesel blends at different engine loadings. Distinctive fuel blends containing 10%, 25% and 40% biodiesel in biodiesel-diesel blended fuel on a volume basis was prepared and used to run VCR engine. Bitter almond biodiesel and sesame biodiesel were used separately to prepare the biodiesel-diesel blends. The VCR engine performances in term of brake thermal efficiency (BTE), specific fuel consumption (SFC) and exhaust gas temperature (EGT) whereas engine exhaust emissions in term of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) were evaluated. The experimental results of each blend were compared with pure diesel. Notable improvements have been seen in term of performance parameters as well as exhaust emissions of VCR diesel engine. The results show significant reduction in NOx, HC, and CO emission but brake thermal efficiency increased marginally for both biodiesel blends at specific conditions. It concludes that biodiesel blend BAME-25 and SOME-25 biodiesel act as best alternative fuel among all tested fuel at full load condition. The present work carried out to establish the feasibility of biodiesel-fuelled CI engine utility system for agricultural and field applications. Therefore various blends of BAME and SOME can be readily adopted as a substitute fuel to the existing compression ignition engine.