Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6764621 | Renewable Energy | 2018 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
Some properties of castor oil such as extremely high viscosity and high water content complicate the use of neat castor oil (NCO) as a fuel for compression ignition engines. The brake thermal efficiency, emission and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine operation compared with neat castor oil is far inferior. However, neat castor oil has an affinity for alcohol because of high Ricinoleic Acid about 89.5% and hence mixes in any proportion without any phase separation and also diesel easily blends with neat castor oil. The blending of bio-ethanol and diesel enhances the combustion of NCO. The present study aims to obtain an optimum ternary fuel blend with neat castor oil-diesel- bio-ethanol, which can be used in small diesel engines. Experimental investigation reveals that the ternary blend of neat castor oil-diesel-bio-ethanol fuel with the volume ratio of NCO40Â +Â D30Â +Â E30 is optimum. At full load, the thermal efficiency of the engine operating with NCO40Â +Â D30Â +Â E30 is 31.25%, which is closer to diesel operation of 32.94% and specific NO emission for NCO40Â +Â D30Â +Â E30 is 6.11Â g/kWh, whereas it is 8.17Â g/kWh for diesel. NCO40Â +Â D30Â +Â E30 has a smoke emission of 68% opacity, but the smoke level of the base diesel engine is 57% opacity.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Energy
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Authors
T. Prakash, V. Edwin Geo, Leenus Jesu Martin, B. Nagalingam,