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The present study discusses the effects of engine combustion, performance and emission features of methanol-gasoline blend fired lean burn Spark Ignition (SI) engine. Performance features such as Brake Power (BP), Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC), Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE), tail pipe emissions namely Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxide (NO), Carbon di Oxide (CO2) and combustion characteristics viz. in-cylinder pressure, Heat Release Rate (HRR), Cumulative Heat Release (CHR) and variation of mean effective pressure were measured and compared with that of neat gasoline. Experiments were conducted on a modified sole cylinder four-stroke compression engine (Kirloskar TAF1) to operate as SI engine with a compression ratio of 10.5:1. A new manifold injection system and ignition system were developed by replacing the fuel injection pump and injector.

This paper describes the design methodology and algorithm development towards the design of an automatic external gear-shifting and clutch-actuation system for a sequential gearbox with the aim of providing the drivers with easier and an efficient means of shifting gears. Automatically actuated manual transmission system bridges the gap between automatic and manual transmissions which provides the advantages of both type of transmissions. This would ideally leads to faster shifting time and provide significant benefits in the form of electronic-aids like launch control and traction control. Removal of mechanical clutching would reduce fatigue and lead to ergonomic benefit. Based on the benchmarking performed on an easily available ready-to-install aftermarket alternative, options will be considered for the actuating mechanism and the most feasible will be used to develop a shifting system.

This paper summarizes the research work incorporated in the exploration of the potential of swirling in CI Engine and designing of a new mechanism, particularly at inlet, to deliver it to improve the in-cylinder air characteristics to eventually improve mixing and combustion process to improve the engine performance. The research is concentrated on the measures to be done on engine geometry so as to not only deliver advantage to any specific fuel. According to the CI combustion theory, better engine performance may be achieved with Higher Viscous Fuel by improving the in-cylinder air-fuel mixing by increasing the swirl (rotation of air view from top of the cylinder) and tumble (rotation of air view from front of the cylinder) of in-cylinder air inside the fuel-injected region. The proposed inlet component is embedded with airfoil and is suitably designed after being iterated from four steps.

Automotive engine emissions are disturbing the ecological system and it has caused major impact on flora & fauna and environment. The major motive force behind this research is to find the alter-native fuel for the future sustainable mobility and less dependence on the fossil fuels. Biodiesel fuel produced from non-edible oil (like castor) could be used to replace a considerable portion of the conventional fuel consumed worldwide. Castor oil is selected for this study considering a fact that India is a major contributor in global castor oil seed production and also it, being a non-edible oil, avoids the cold-war between food vs fuel. The present study has been conducted in three phases.

This paper deals with the concept design of a mini tractor which is suitable for mild ploughing operations with 5 kW electric motor. The low cost battery driven mini tractor operates on a lead acid batteries. The design principles and calculations of electric tractor powertrain are studied and delineated in details. By using these calculations, parameters of the major powertrain components like drive motor, battery and transmission are obtained. The powertrain model of an electric tractor is modelled with MATLAB/Simulink to estimate the traction and battery performance. The CAD model of tractor is prepared in Solidworks and CAE analysis of chassis is performed using ANSYS Workbench to ensure safety and reliability. Calculations are performed for tractor subsystems such as steering system and braking system. The analysis results confer the design as safe and satisfactory in terms of performance.

Microalgae as feedstock are the potential third generation biofuels. Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganism which requires light, carbon-di-oxide, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium for growth and to produce lipids, proteins and carbohydrates in large amounts over short a periods of time. The production of biofuels from microalgal is a viable alternative due to their easy adaptability to growth conditions, possibility of growing biomass either in fresh or marine waters. Hence the current project was designed to elucidate the biodiesel producing ability of blue-green algae such as Spirulina platensis and Green algae Chlorella vulgaris. The selected algae were cultivated in suitable growth media such as modified Zarrouke medium and bold basal medium, respectively. The Spirulina platensis and Chlorella vulgaris were mass cultured for 8 days then harvested using 50 micron nylon filters and dried in sunlight to obtain dry biomass.

Because of higher NOx and PM emissions Compression Ignition (CI) engines are slowly being replaced by gas engines in metro cities though CI engine have better thermal efficiency and emit less Carbon monoxide (CO) and Unburned Hydrocarbons (UHC) emission than SI engines. Pollutants formed during combustion, depleting fossil fuels and continuous raising fuel price pushes the research community to find new alternative fuels which can be used along with diesel or replace the diesel without making major modifications in the current engine. The objective of this research work is to derive bio-diesel fuel from the source of algae and use it as a fuel by blending with commercially available diesel fuel. Heptanol is added along with algae bio-diesel and diesel blend to improve the ignition quality of the blend. Tests were conducted on a single cylinder constant speed, water cooled stationary diesel engine with different blends proportions of heptanol-biodiesel-diesel.