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Biomass-based fuels are gaining importance for operating a compression ignition engine as they can curb greenhouse gases and are a key for addressing the energy security. Hydrotreated oil is considered to be a potential drop-in fuel for the compression ignition engine as its cetane number is higher than fossil diesel. In this study, hydrotreated waste cooking oil and its blends (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% by volume) with diesel were prepared. The ignition probability of the test fuel samples was found using a hot-plate test setup. The neat hydrotreated fuel has higher ignition probability at a particular temperature than the other test fuels. The Sauter mean diameter of the test fuels was also observed using a Malvern Spraytec test setup. The results reveal that the neat hydrotreated fuel has higher Sauter mean diameter due to its high viscosity. As the percentage of the hydrotreated fuel in the blend decreases, the Sauter mean diameter decreases and diesel has the lowest Sauter mean diameter. The test fuels were also used to run a compression ignition engine. The results reveal a decrease in brake thermal efficiency with the increase in the hydrotreated fuel share in the blend. The heat release for the blends starts earlier than diesel and the peak heat release is also lower than diesel. The HC, CO and smoke emissions for the test blends decreases up to 30% blend. When the percentage of the hydrotreated oil is further increased, the emissions starts increasing. The NO emissions were lower than diesel for all the test samples. As compared to diesel, the maximum reduction in NO (neat), HC (30% blend), CO (30% blend) and smoke emissions (30% blend) is 23.2%, 14.4%, 13.83% and 13.3%, respectively.

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Energy is the driver in the economic development of any country. It is expected that the developing countries like India will account for 25% hike in world-wide energy demand by 2040 due to the increase in the per capita income and rapid industrialization. Most of the developing countries do not have sufficient oil reserves and imports nearly all of their crude oil requirement. The perturbations in the crude oil price, sanctions on Iran and adverse environmental impacts from fossil fuel usage are some of the concern. Therefore, developing countries have started investing heavily in solar and wind power and are considering hydrogen as a future energy resource. Hydrogen is possibly the cleanest fuel and produces only water vapour upon combustion. However, to tap the potential of hydrogen as a fuel, an entirely new infrastructure will be needed for transporting, storing and dispensing it safely, which would be expensive. In the transportation sector, a liquid alternate to fossil fuels will be highly desirable as the existing infrastructure can be used with minor modifications. Amongst the possible liquid fuels, methanol is very promising. Methanol is a single carbon atom compound and can be produced from wide variety of sources such as natural gas, coal, and biomass. The properties of methanol are conducive for use in gasoline engines since it has high octane number and flame speed. Other possible uses of methanol are: as a cooking fuel in rural areas, and as a fuel for running the fuel cells. The present study reviews the limitations in the hydrogen economy and why moving towards methanol economy is more beneficial.

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