Synthesis of cracked Calophyllum inophyllum oil using fly ash catalyst for diesel engine application

• Cracked Calopyllum inophyllum oil was tapped as alternate fuel for diesel engine.
• Waste fly ash used as a catalyst was characterized before and after cracking.
• Cracked oil evinced presence of esters, olefins, parafins and so on.
• B25 was noted to show comparable engine performance and combustion with diesel.
• Emissions such as CO, HC, smoke and NOX for B25 were found to be akin to diesel.

In this study, production of hydrocarbon fuel from Calophyllum inophyllum oil has been characterized for diesel engine application, by appraising essential fuel processing parameters. As opposed to traditional trans-esterification process, the reported oil was cracked using a catalyst, as the latter improves the fuel properties better than the former. In a bid to make the production process economically viable, a waste and cheap catalyst, RFA (raw fly ash), has been capitalized for the cracking process as against the conventional zeolite catalyst. The fuel production process, which is performed in a fixed bed catalytic reactor, was done methodologically after comprehensively studying the characteristics of fly ash catalyst. Significantly, fly ash characterization was realized using SEM and EDS, which demarcated the surface and internal structures of fly ash particles before and after cracking. After the production of hydrocarbon fuel from C. inophyllum oil, the performed compositional analysis in GC-MS revealed the presence of esters, parfins and olefins. Followed by the characterization of catalytically cracked C. inophyllum oil, suitable blends of it with diesel were tested in a single cylinder diesel engine. From the engine experimental results, BTE (brake thermal efficiency) of the engine for B25 (25% cracked C. inophyllum oil and 75% diesel) was observed to be closer to diesel, while it decreased for higher blends. On the other hand, emissions such as HC (hydrocarbon), CO (carbon monoxide) and smoke were found to be comparable for B25 with diesel.

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