ROLE OF BIODIESEL IN LHR ENGINE

FOR EMISSION REDUCTION

1*
M. Mohammed Jafar Sadiq,
2
Dr.S. Sampath,
3
M.Gowtham, C.
4
Vikram

1
*
, 3, 4 Final year students, Rajalakshmi Engineering College
2

Dean, Department of Automobile Engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College
Abstract-
The large increase in number of vehicles in recent
years have resulted in great demand for petroleum
products. Growing concern regarding energy resources and
the atmosphere has increased interest in the study of
alternative sources of energy. To meet the increasing
energy requirements, there has been growing interest in
alternative fuels like biodiesel to provide a suitable diesel
oil substitute for internal combustion engines. Biodiesels
offer a very promising alternative to diesel oil since they
are renewable and have similar properties. Biodiesel is
defined as a trans esterified renewable fuel derived from
vegetable oils or animal fats with properties similar or
better than diesel fuel.
A lot of research work has been carried out using vegetable
oil both in its neat form and modified form. Studies have
shown that the usage of vegetable oils in neat form is
possible but not preferable. The objective of this study is to
evaluate performance, combustion and emission
characteristics of thermal barrier coated Direct Injection
(DI) diesel engine with Bio diesel. Plasma spray coating
(PSC) technique has been used to coat the cylinder head,
valves and piston crown with Partially Stabilised Zirconia
(PSZ). The use of bio diesel leads to the substantial
reduction in PM, HC and CO emissions accompanying
with the imperceptible power loss, the increase in fuel
consumption and the increase in NOx emission on
conventional diesel engines with no or fewer modification.
With the increasing concern of environmental protection
and more stringent emission regulations, reduction of diesel
emissions has become a current issue in engine
development. It is difficult to reduce particulate and
nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions at the same time. On the
other hand, modification of fuel composition through the
addition of oxygenate fuel to diesel fuel can reduce exhaust
gas emissions from diesel engines.

Keywords: Biodiesel, LHR Engine

I ntroduction:

Diesel engines are the dominating one primarily
in the field of transportation and secondarily in agricultural
machinery due to its superior fuel economy and higher fuel
efficiency. The world survey explicit that the diesel fuel
consumption is several times higher than that of gasoline
fuel. These fuels are fossil in nature, leads to the depletion
of fuel and increasing cost. It has been found that the
chemically treated vegetable oil often called as biodiesel is
a promising fuel, because of their properties are similar to
that of diesel fuel and it is renewable and can be easily
produced. Compared to the conventional DI diesel engine
the basic concept of LHR engine is to suppress the heat
rejection to the coolant so that the useful power output can
be increased, which in turn results in improved thermal
efficiency. However previous studies are revealing that the
thermal efficiency variation of LHR engine not only
depends on the heat recovery system, but also depends on
the engine configuration, operating condition and physical
properties of the insulation material
The drawback of an LHR engine has to be considered
seriously and effort has to be taken to reduce the increased
heat loss with the exhaust and increased level of NOx
emission. The potential techniques available for the
reduction of NOx from diesel engines are exhaust gas
recirculation (EGR), water injection, slower burn rate,
reduced intake air temperature and particularly retarding
the injection timing. It is strongly proven that the increasing
thickness of ceramic coatings arrest the heat loss from the
engine cylinder, in contrast decreases the power and torque.
The optimized coating thickness can be identified through
the simulation techniques. One of the viable significance of
LHR engine is utilizing the low calorific value fuel such as
biodiesel. Studies have revealed that, the use of biodiesel
under identical condition as that for the diesel fuel results in
slightly lower performance and emission levels due to the
mismatching of the fuel properties mainly low calorific
value and higher viscosity. The problems associated with
the higher viscosity of biodiesel in a compression ignition
(CI) engines are pumping loss, gum formation, injector
nozzle coking, ring sticking and incompatibility with
lubricating oil. The above identified problems with the use
of biodiesel in conventional diesel engine can be reduced in
LHR engines except for the injection problem. The
vegetable oil will be trans-esterified using methanol in the
presence of NaOH as a catalyst. The parameter involved in
the above processing includes the catalyst amount, molar
ratio of alcohol to oil, reaction temperature and reaction
time.The engine combustion chamber has to be coated with
partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) of 0.5 mm thickness,
which includes the piston crown, cylinder head, valves, and
outside of the cylinder liner. The equal amount of material
will be removed from the various parts of the combustion
chamber and PSZ will be coated uniformly.

What is Biodiesel:
Bio diesels are the mono alkyl esters of long chain
fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats.
Biodiesel can be mixed with petroleum diesel in any
percentage, from 1 to 99, which is represented by a number
following a B. For example, B5 is 5 percent biodiesel with
95 percent petroleum, B20 is 20 percent biodiesel with 80
percent petroleum, or B100 is 100 percent biodiesel, no
diesel. Since bio diesel is made from plants and animal oils,
it is a renewable fuel. It is compatible to diesel engines.
Burning bio diesel doesnt produce harmful emissions like
diesel. It is non-toxic and bio-degradable by nature. If it
spills, it rapidly breaks into harmless substances. It has no
sulphur content in it and so, sulphur emissions can be
greatly reduced. Biodiesel exceeds diesel in Cetane number
resulting in superior ignition characteristics. It has a high
flash point making it more versatile where safety is a
concern. Horse power, acceleration and torque are
comparable with diesel. Lubricity is superior for biodiesel.


Production of biodiesel:
Esters of higher fatty acids are termed as biodiesel.
Vegetable oils can be chemically treated with an alcohol
(methanol) to produce biodiesel.it is obtained through a
process called transesterification. Here, the vegetable oil is
first filtered, then processed with alkali to remove fatty
acids. It is then mixed with an alcohol and a catalyst
(sodium or potassium hydroxide). The triglyceride of oil
reacts to form esters and glycerol, which are separated and
purified. A by-product of the transesterification process is
the production of glycerol. For every 1 tones of biodiesel
that is manufactured, 100 kg of glycerol are produced. Any
fatty acid can be used to make biodiesel. Waste animal fats,
used frying oil, peanuts, cotton seed, sun flower seeds are
some of the potential feed stocks for biodiesel production.
Esters made from all the above feed stocks can be used
successfully as automotive fuel, although they may differ
slightly in terms of energy content, Cetane rating and other
physical properties.

The general process of bio diesel production is the
transesterification of higher fatty acids. It involves treating
vegetable oil with alcohol in presence of base type catalyst.
The catalyst is typically sodium or potassium hydroxide. It
is dissolved in alcohol using a standard agitator or mixer.
The alcohol/catalyst mixture is then charged into a vessel
and then oil is added. The system is now on closed to
atmosphere to prevent loss of alcohol. The reaction mixture
is kept at a temperature above the boiling point of alcohol.
Recommended reaction time varies from 1 to 8 hours.
Excess alcohol ensures complete conversion of oil to esters.
Care must be taken to monitor the amount of water and free
fatty acids in the incoming oil or fat. If the free fatty acid
level is too high it may cause problems with soap formation
and the separation of the glycerin by-product downstream.
Once the reaction is complete, two products are formed.
They are glycerin and biodiesel. The glycerin phase is
denser than biodiesel. So they can be gravity separated with
glycerin simply drawn off at the bottom of the vessel. In
some cases they can be separated using a centrifuge. Once
the glycerin and biodiesel phases are separated, the excess
alcohol in each phase is removed using a flash evaporation
process or by distillation. The removed alcohol is re-used.
Care must be taken to ensure no water accumulates in the
alcohol stream. The glycerin by-product contains unused
catalyst and soaps that are neutralized with an acid and sent
to storage facility as crude glycerin.


In some cases, salt formed in this phase is
recovered for use as a fertilizer. In most cases, it is left in
glycerin. Water and alcohol are removed to produce 80-
90% pure glycerin. In some cases, it can be distilled to 99%
purity for commercial purposes. Once the biodiesel is
separated from glycerin, it is purified by washing gently
with warm water to remove residual catalysts and soap.
Then it is dried and sent for storage. This is end of the
production process yielding a clear amber- yellow liquid
with a viscosity similar to petrodiesel. In some systems the
biodiesel is distilled in an additional step to remove small
amounts of color body to produce a colorless biodiesel.
Prior to use as a commercial fuel, the finished biodiesel
must be analyzed using analytical equipment to ensure that
it meet its ASTM requirements.

Experimental Setup:
The experimental setup and the specification of the test
engine are shown in Fig.1 and table 1 respectively.
Fig. 1 Experimental setup
i. Test engine
ii. Dynamometer
iii. Dynamometer controller
iv. Piezo electric pressure transducer
v. Charge amplifiers
vi. Data acquisition system
vii. Magnetic pickup
viii. Computer

The engine was coupled with an eddy current dynamometer
for performance and emission testing. A piezoelectric
transducer was mounted through an adopter in the cylinder
shead to measure the in-cylinder pressure. Signal from the
pressure transducer was fed to charge amplifier. A
magnetic shaft encoder was used to measure the TDC and
crank angle position. The signals from the charge amplifier
and shaft encoder were given to the appropriate channels of
a data acquisition system.
The analyzer used to measure the engine exhaust emission
was calibrated before each test. Using the appropriate
calibration curve, the measurement error for each analyzer
was reduced as per the recommendation by the exhaust
analyzer manual. Exhaust gas temperature was measured
using an iron-constantan thermocouple and mercury
thermometer was used to measure the cooling water
temperature. Diesel and biodiesel was used in the
conventional diesel engine and the PSZ coated LHR
engine. The experiments were carried out in a single
cylinder, naturally aspirated, constant speed, water-cooled
direct injection diesel engine with the following
specifications

Merits and demerits:
Merits:
Biodiesel is biodegradable.
Biodiesel is safer to handle compared to standard
diesel.
Biodiesel can be easily blended with standard
diesel, and it can be used in most of today's
vehicles even in form of pure biodiesel B100.
Biodiesel has very good lubricating properties,
significantly better than standard diesel which
can prolong engine's life.
Biodiesel has shorter ignition delay compared to
standard diesel.
Biodiesel has no sulfur content, and so it doesn't
contribute to acid rain formation.

Demerits:
Biodiesel is currently mostly produced from corn
which could lead to food shortages and increased
food prices. The end result of this could be more
hunger in the world.
Biodiesel is 20 times more suspectible to water
contamination compared to standard diesel, and
this could lead to corrosion, rotten filters, pitting
in the pistons, etc.
Pure biodiesel has significant problems with low
temperatures.
Biodiesel is significantly more expensive
compared to standard diesel.
Biodiesel has significantly less energy content
compared to standard diesel, around 11% less
compared to standard petroleum diesel.
Biodiesel can release nitrogen oxide which can
lead to the formation of smog.

Conclusion:
The biodiesel produced from UNKNOWN oil
by transesterification process reduces the viscosity of the
oil in order to match the suitability of diesel fuel. The diesel
engine is modified in to LHR engine by means of partially
stabilized zirconia (PSZ) coating. The various combustion
parameters such as cylinder pressure, rate of heat release,
cumulative heat releases were analyzed and the following
conclusions were arrived it.
i. At full load condition, the cylinder pressure in the case of
biodiesel fueled LHR engine was lower than that of the
diesel fueled LHR engine. Even though this reduction
under identical condition is substantial. The absolute value
of this cylinder peak pressure is well within operating
limits of the test engine.
ii. The final analysis of the heat release shows that, the
value of net heat release in the case of biodiesel fueled
LHR engine is substantially good enough for the effective
work done of the test engine.

The above comparative study clearly reveals the possibility
of using the biodiesel in LHR direct injection diesel engine.
The combustion, performance and emission characteristics
show the suitability of biodiesel in LHR engine