Search Results

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 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.

Biodiesel is an alternate fuel for diesel consisting of the alkyl monoester of fatty acids derived from vegetable oils. The most usual method to transform oil into biodiesel is transesterification which can be carried out using different catalyst. Jatropha is second generation oil which is non edible and can be use for producing biodiesel. The first part is to expel oil from jatropha seeds. There are different types of expelling methods such as mechanical extraction, solvent extraction and enzymatic extraction. The study was conducted with hand driven mechanical expeller which is most conventional way of extracting oil from seeds with mechanical efficiency of 60-80% for single pass. The study includes various combinations of parameters like seed treatment, sun drying, pre-heating, soaking at different temperatures and different de-hulling compositions.

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.

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel which is made through a chemical process which converts vegetable oils and fats of natural origin into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). The most usual method to transform Bio-oil into biodiesel is Transesterification that can be carried out using different catalyst systems. Jatropha is second generation, non-edible oil and can be used for producing biodiesel. The Transesterification reaction consists of heating jatropha oil with proper concentration of methanol at appropriate temperature in the presence of catalyst. After reaction, the mixture is allowed to settle down for 8-10 hrs. Two separate layers, top layer of biodiesel and lower layer of glycerol will form, which can be separated. Reaction temperature, amount of methanol, catalyst and reaction time are important parameters which decide yield and quality of biodiesel.

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.