Experimental investigations on CRDI diesel engine fuelled with acid oil methyl ester (AOME) and its blends with ethanol

Abstract

Biodiesel which is propelled as substitute to diesel fuel though attractive is not viable at present state because of its high production cost with the major concern of finding a permanent resource. As basically biodiesel is a assortment of fatty acid methyl ester it can also be produced from non-glyceride sources like acid oil which is non-edible, easily obtainable in significant amounts at the majority of the vegetable oil processing plants. This paper mainly focuses on the utilization of Acid Oil Methyl Ester (AOME) and its combinations with diesel and ethanol in different proportionsin a modified diesel engine fitted with Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDI) facilities. Acid oil was suitably trans-esterified to obtain its ester AOME and was subsequently blended with diesel and ethanol and characterization of the obtained fuels were done. A functional single cylinder diesel engine was duly converted to CRDI engine in which Conventional Mechanical Fuel Injection System (CMFIS) was replaced with CRDI facilities in order to inject biodiesel at higher injection pressures. Experiments were conducted to examine the influence of Injection Timing (IT), and Injector opening Pressure (IP) on the performance of modified CRDI engine fuelled with AOME and its blends with diesel and ethanol for improved engine performance. The experimental examination revealed IT of 10obTDC as well as IP of 900 bar as the most excellent engine operating parameters to achieve the highest Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) with lowered Hydro-Carbon (HC), Carbon Monoxide (CO), smoke emissions while, oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions were found to be superior for the fuel combinations employed in the investigation.

Keywords: Diesel, Ethanol, Acid oil methyl ester (AOME), Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDI), Emissions