Effects of the Degree of Unsaturation of Fatty Acid Esters on Engine Performance and Emission Characteristics

Abstract

Biodiesel is considered an environmentally friendly alternative to petro-derived diesel. The cetane number indicates the degree of difficulty in the compression-ignition of liquid fuel-powered engines. The allylic position equivalent (APE), which represents the unsaturated degree of fatty acid esters, was one of the key parameters for the cetane number of biodiesel. Due to the significant attributes of APE for biodiesel properties, the impact of APE on engine performance and emission characteristics was investigated in this study. The engine characteristics could be improved by adjusting the biodiesel fuel structure accordingly. A four-stroke and four-cylinder diesel engine accompanied by an engine dynamometer and a gas analyzer were used to derive the optimum blending ratio of the two biodiesels from soybean oil and waste cooking oil. Three fuel samples composed of various proportions of those two biodiesels and ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) were prepared. The amounts of saturated fatty acids and mono-unsaturated fatty acids of the biodiesel made from waste cooking oil were significantly higher than those of the soybean-oil biodiesel by 9.92 wt. % and 28.54 wt. %, respectively. This caused a higher APE of the soybean-oil biodiesel than that of the biodiesel from waste cooking oil. The APE II biodiesel appeared to have the highest APE value (80.68) among those fuel samples. When the engine speed was increased to 1600 rpm, in comparison with the ULSD sample, the APE II biodiesel sample was observed to have lower CO and O2 emissions and engine thermal efficiency by 15.66%, 0.6%, and 9.3%, while having higher CO2 and NOx emissions, exhaust gas temperature, and brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) by 2.56%, 13.8%, 8.9 °C, and 16.67%, respectively. Hence, the engine performance and emission characteristics could be enhanced by adequately adjusting the degree of unsaturation of fatty acid esters represented by the APE of biodiesel.