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Received 3 June 2003; received in revised form 1 March 2004; accepted 3 March 2004
Abstract
This paper presents the results of investigations carried out in studying the fuel properties of karanja methyl ester (KME)
and its blend with diesel from 20% to 80% by volume and in running a diesel engine with these fuels. Engine tests have been
carried out with the aim of obtaining comparative measures of torque, power, speci4c fuel consumption and emissions such
as CO, smoke density and NOx to evaluate and compute the behaviour of the diesel engine running on the above-mentioned
fuels. The reduction in exhaust emissions together with increase in torque, brake power, brake thermal e:ciency and reduction
in brake-speci4c fuel consumption made the blends of karanja esteri4ed oil (B20 and B40) a suitable alternative fuel for
diesel and could help in controlling air pollution.
? 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Alternative fuel; Pongamia glabra; Karanja methyl ester; Biodiesel blend; Emissions; Engine performance
1. Introduction India, not much attempt has been made to use es-
ters of these non-edible oils as a substitute for diesel.
Many researchers have reported that with the use Karanja (Pongamia glabra) is one such forest-based
of vegetable oil ester as a fuel in diesel engines, a tree-borne non-edible oil with a production potential
reduction in harmful exhaust emissions as well as of 135,000 million tones [8]. Hence, a study was un-
a comparable engine performance with diesel were dertaken at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
achieved [1–7]. Most of the esteri4ed oils tried in to run a diesel engine with esteri4ed karanja oil and
diesel engines were soybean, sun>ower, sa?ower, its blend with diesel.
and rapeseed. These oils are essentially edible oils in
the Indian context and use of biodiesels from these
oils as a substitute to diesel fuel may lead to a con- 2. Experiments
cept of self-su:ciency in vegetable oil production,
which India has not attained yet. With the abundance 2.1. Composition of karanja oil
of forest and tree-borne non-edible oils available in
The basic composition of any vegetable oil is
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-3222-283160; fax:
triglyceride, which is the ester of three fatty acids and
+91-3222-282244. one glycerol. The fatty acid composition of karanja
E-mail address: hifjur@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in (H. Raheman). oil is summarized in Table 1 [9].
Table 1
Fatty acid composition of karanja oil
2.2. Esteri3cation of karanja oil dition, emissions like smoke density, CO, NOx and
exhaust temperature were measured using a smoke
Esteri4cation of karanja oil is composed of heat- meter and an online exhaust gas analyser. Each
ing of oil, addition of KOH and methyl alcohol, reading was replicated thrice to obtain a reasonable
stirring of mixture, separation of glycerol, washing value.
with distilled water and heating for removal of wa- The engine test was done according to BIS: 5994-II
ter. Karanja oil was esteri4ed using the esteri4cation [11]. Parameters like the speed of operation, fuel con-
system developed in the laboratory of Agricultural sumption and torque were measured from which brake
and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of power, brake speci4c fuel consumption and brake
Technology, Kharagpur [9]. The system was capable thermal e:ciency were computed. All observations
of preparing the oil esters su:cient in quantity for recorded were replicated thrice to get a reasonable
running commonly used farm engines (3:73 kW) for value.
at least 8 h.
Fuel properties were determined as per the test 3.1. Fuel characteristics
code prescribed by the Institute of Petroleum, London
[10] for raw karanja oil, karanja methyl ester (B100) After esteri4cation, the colour of karanja oil
and its blends with varying proportion of high-speed changed from deep brown to reddish yellow and on
diesel from 20% to 80% by volume (B20, B40, B60 an average 750 ml of karanja methyl ester (biodiesel)
and B80). was obtained from 1 l of karanja oil. The measured
properties are presented in Table 2.
2.4. Emissions and engine performance The kinematic viscosity of karanja oil was found
to be 10.7 times more than that of diesel determined
The karanja methyl ester (biodiesel, B100) and its at 40◦ C. After esteri4cation, the kinematic viscosity
blends (B20, B40, B60 and B80) were used to test a reduced to 2.9 times than that of pure karanja oil. It
single cylinder, four-stroke, DI, water-cooled diesel further reduced with increase in diesel amount in the
engine having a rated output of 7:5 kW at 3000 rpm blend. A similar reduction in speci4c gravity was also
and a compression ratio of 16:1. The engine was cou- observed. However, the calori4c value of biodiesel
pled with an electric dynamometer with the help of a was found to be 36:12 MJ=kg, which is less than the
V-belt and pulley to apply diMerent engine loads. The calori4c value of diesel (42:21 MJ=kg) and greater
emissions from the engine were studied at diMerent en- than that of the karanja oil (34 MJ=kg). As the percent-
gine loads (10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 85% and 100% of age of biodiesel in the blends increased, the calori4c
the load corresponding to the load at maximum power) value decreased. The >ash points of karanja oil and
at an average engine speed of 2525 (62%) rpm. biodiesel were found to be greater than 100◦ C, which
After the engine reached the stabilized working con- is safe for storage and handling.
H. Raheman, A.G. Phadatare / Biomass and Bioenergy 27 (2004) 393 – 397 395
Table 2
Fuel properties of karanja oil, karanja methyl ester and its blends
Fig. 1. Variation of CO with load for diMerent fuels tested. Fig. 2. Variation of smoke density with load for diMerent fuels
tested.
14
12
10
Torque, Nm
8
B20
6 B40
B60
4 B80
B100
Diesel
2
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Load %
0.6
0.5
0.4
B20
0.3 B40
B60
0.2 B80
B100
0.1
Diesel
0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Load %
measured varied between 260◦ C and 336◦ C as com- creased with increase in load. This was due to an in-
pared to 262◦ C and 335◦ C for diesel indicating no crease in fuel consumption with an increase in load.
much variation in exhaust temperature. This could be The torques produced in case of B20 and B40 were
due to nearly the same quantity of fuel being con- 0.1–13% higher than that of diesel due to complete
sumed per hour for both diesel and biodiesel blends in combustion of fuels. In case B60 to B100, it reduced
each load setting of the engine. Since heat loss to the by 4–23% from that of diesel due to a decrease in the
exhaust on percent basis was approximately constant calori4c value of fuel with an increase in biodiesel
throughout the entire load range hence same quantity percentage in the blends.
of fuel consumed means same heat was dejected, re-
sulting in little variation in exhaust temperature. 3.3.2. Brake-speci3c fuel consumption
The variation of brake-speci4c fuel consumption
3.3. Engine performance with load for diMerent fuels is presented in Fig. 6.
For all fuels tested, brake-speci4c fuel consumption
3.3.1. Torque decreased with increase in load. One possible expla-
The variation of torque of the engine with load for nation for this reduction could be due to the higher
diMerent fuels is presented in Fig. 5. The torque in- percentage of increase in brake power with load as
H. Raheman, A.G. Phadatare / Biomass and Bioenergy 27 (2004) 393 – 397 397
25
ever, the brake power output increased on an aver-
20 age 6% up to biodiesel blend B40 and with a further
B20 increase in the biodiesel percentage in the blend it
15 B40 reduced.
B60
10 B80 Hence it can be concluded that the blends of karanja
B100 methyl ester with diesel up to 40% by volume could
5 Diesel
replace diesel for running the diesel engine for get-
0 ting less emissions without sacri4cing the power out-
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 put and will thus help in controlling air pollution
Load % to a great extent.
Fig. 7. Variation of brake thermal e:ciency with load for diMerent
fuels tested.
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