Investigations on Preheated Palm Oil Methyl Esters in the Diesel Engine

Abstract

The major drawback of vegetable oil fuels is their high viscosity. Various conventional approaches to reducing the viscosity of vegetable oils are studied theoretically and experimentally. An attempt to reduce the viscosity of the palm oil methyl esters (POME) by preheating the fuel was performed and a comparison on the basis of its projected chance of leading to ‘diesel-like’ combustion was also carried out with conventional diesel fuel. It was observed that by preheating the POME fuel above the conventional temperature, the engine performance, especially the brake power output and the exhaust emissions characteristics, is improved significantly, approaching diesellike' performance. This is mainly attributed to the fact that as the fuel is preheated the viscosity is reduced close to ordinary diesel (OD) fuel. This will result in improved spray and atomization characteristics. Torque, brake power, specific fuel consumption, exhaust emissions and brake thermal efficiencies were measured and calculated. The potential for improved engine performance and reduction in emissions levels was demonstrated.

An experimental investigation on the long-term compatibility of preheated crude palm oil in a large compression ignition diesel engine

“…In fact, biodiesel, also known as the mono alkyl ester of fatty acids, is characterized by viscosity, volatility and cetane number very close to those of conventional diesel fuel (Srivastava and Prasad, 2000;Agarwal, 2007;Ong et al, 2011), hence allowing to be immediately employed in the current CI engines. Methyl esters derived from Jatropha Curcas oil (Ong et al, 2011), coconut oil (Shaheed and Swain, 1999), palm oil (Masjuki et al, 1996 (Graboski and McCormick, 1998). These methyl esters are used in neat form or blended with OD.…”

An experimental study of Pongamia pinnata L. oil as a diesel substitute

“…Owing to polyunsaturated character, in long-term operation, vegetable oils normally introduce the development of gumming, the formation of injector deposits [9], ring sticking, as well as incompatibility with conventional lubricating oils [10]. Adaptation of the vegetable oil as a CI engine fuel can be done by pyrolysis, microemulsification, dilution, and transesterification [5,11,12].…”

Producción e Impacto del Biodiesel: Una Revisión

“…La opacidad del humo es una medida directa de humo y hollín. Varios estudios muestran que la opacidad del humo para el biodiesel es generalmente menor según: Agarwal (1998); Masjuki (1996); Kalligeros et al (2003) & Ceviz et al (2011.…”