Comparison of Engine Performance and Emissions for Petroleum Diesel Fuel, Yellow Grease Biodiesel, and Soybean Oil Biodiesel

Abstract

Biodiesel is a non-toxic, biodegradable and renewable alternative fuel that can be used with little or no engine modifications. Biodiesel is currently expensive but would be more cost effective if it could be produced from low-cost oils (restaurant waste, frying oils, animal fats). These low-cost feedstocks are more challenging to process because they contain high levels of free fatty acids. A process for converting these feedstocks to fuel-grade biodiesel has been developed and described previously. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the biodiesel produced from high free fatty acid feedstocks on engine performance and emissions. Two different biodiesels were prepared from animal fat-based yellow grease with 9% free fatty acids and from soybean oil. The neat fuels and their 20% blends with No. 2 diesel fuel were studied at steady-state engine operating conditions in a four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine. Although both biodiesel fuels provided significant reductions in particulates, carbon monoxide, and unburned hydrocarbons, the oxides of nitrogen increased by 11% and 13% for the yellow grease methyl ester and soybean oil methyl ester, respectively. The conversion of the biodiesel fuel's energy to work was equal to that from diesel fuel.

Performance and emission characteristics of compression ignition engine using methyl ester blends of jatropha and fish oil

“…Brake Thermal Efficiency Figure 3 shows the variation of brake thermal efficiency with brake power, which was found to increase with increasing brake power as observed by investigators [27,28,30]. The brake thermal efficiency for 20% JOME and 20% FOME blends were slightly lower than that of diesel at all loads.…”

“…Low cost [25,26] renewable raw material is a very important requirement for economical production of biodiesel. Biodiesel produced from waste fish oil is a very good and low cost alternative to petroleum diesel [27]. The fish processing industry generates large quantities of tissue waste and byproducts which are either discarded or retailed at low values for fertilizer or animal feeds [28].…”

Investigation of performance and emission characteristics of waste cooking oil as biodiesel in a diesel engine

“…Arslan (2011) and Hamasaki et al (2001) stated that biodiesel could be used as an alternative fuel instead of existing conventional diesel engines without requiring any modifications. Compared to conventional fossil diesel fuel, biodiesel provides significant reductions in particulate matter (PM) emissions (Canakci and Van Gerpen 2003;Lapuerta et al 2008;Tat 2003), carbon monoxide (CO) emissions (Mittelbach and Tritthart 1988) and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions (Payrı et al 2005). The performance of biodiesel-fueled engines is better than that of diesel-fueled engines in terms of thermal efficiency, brake-specific energy consumption, and smoke opacity, wear of vital components and exhaust emissions for an entire range of operations (Agarwal and Das 2001).…”

Performance analysis of Diesel engines fueled by biodiesel blends via thermodynamic simulation of an air-standard Diesel cycle

“…So, B20 fuel is a good alternative fuel for diesel fuel which can be used in present Diesel engines without any requirement to change engine design. Canakci and Van Gerpen (2003) investigated the effect of biodiesel produced from high free fatty acid feedstock on engine performance and emissions. They stated that energy to work conversion of B20 was equal to that of diesel fuel.…”