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The economics of operating internal combustion engines in cars, buses and other automotive equipment is heavily affected by friction and wear losses caused by abrasive contaminants. As such, dust is a universal pollutant of lubricating oils. Road dust consists of depositions from vehicular and industrial exhausts, tire and brake wear, dust from paved roads or potholes, and from construction sites. Present research investigates the influence of dust powder of size 5 μm-100 μm as contaminant in SAE 20W-40 lubricant on the relative motion of a plane surface over the other having circular surface in contact. A pin-on-disk setup as per ASTM G99 has been used to conduct the experiments, firstly at increasing rpm keeping constant load of 118 N, and secondly by increasing loads, keeping rpm constant at 1000. The contaminated lubricant has been used to study its influence on friction and wear rate at the interface of pin of 12 mm diameter and disk at track diameter of 98 mm.

Globally, the demand for energy is increasing due to both increase in population and enhancement in the lifestyle of people. Most of the energy demand at present is met from fossil fuels, which are not only exhaustible but also a threat to the environment. Various routes of sustainable energy resources are being explored to address the above-mentioned issues and fuel made from used tyre may be one of the promising options. India is one of the fastest growing economies and every year 10 million new vehicles are registered. Due to poor road conditions, nearly fourfold tyres of this number are dumped as waste. This large stock of dumped tyres are non-biodegradable and creates other problems like a breeding site for mosquitos, or source of pollution in case of accidental fire. In order to cope with the large pile-up of used tyres, pyrolysis of these tyres could be a sustainable route.

The present study was carried to explore the potential suitability of biodiesel as an extender of Kerosene in an off road dual fuel (gasoline start, kerosene run) generator set and results were compared with kerosene base line data. The biodiesel was blended with kerosene in two different proportions; 2.5% and 5% by volume. Physico-chemical properties of blends were also found to be comparable with kerosene. Engine tests were performed on three test fuels namely K100 (Kerosene 100%), KB 2.5 (Kerosene 97.5% + Biodiesel 2.5%) and KB5 (Kerosene 95% + Biodiesel 5%). It was found that brake thermal efficiency [BTE] increases up to 3.9% while brake specific energy consumption [BSEC] decreases up to 2.2% with increasing 5% volume fraction of biodiesel in kerosene. The exhaust temperature for blends was lower than kerosene. The test engine emitted reduced Carbon monoxide [CO] emission was 7.4 % less than using neat kerosene as compared to kerosene-biodiesel blends.

Biodiesel from non-edible vegetable oils is of paramount significance in India due to insufficient edible oil production. The present work deals with relatively underutilized non-edible oil “Schleichera oleosa” or “Kusum”. The Kusum biodiesel (KB) was produced using a two stage esterification cum transesterification process as the free fatty acid content of the oil was high. Important physico-chemical properties were evaluated and they were found to conform with corresponding ASTM/EN standards. Various test fuels were prepared for the engine trial by blending 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of KB in diesel by volume and were named as KB10, KB20, KB30 and KB40 respectively. The results showed that full load brake thermal efficiency was dropped by 3.8% to 17% with increase in KB composition in the test fuel. Diesel (D100) showed the maximum full load brake specific energy consumption followed by KB10, KB20, KB30 and KB40.

The growing energy demand and limited petroleum resources in the world have guided researchers towards the use of clean alternative fuels like alcohols for their better tendency to decrease the engine emissions. To comply with the future stringent emission standards, innovative diesel engine technology, exhaust gas after-treatment, and clean alternative fuels are required. The use of alcohols as a blending agent in diesel fuel is rising, because of its benefits like enrichment of oxygen, premixed low temperature combustion (LTC) and enhancement of the diffusive combustion phase. Several researchers have investigated the relationship between LTC operational range and cetane number. In a light-duty diesel engine working at high loads, a low-cetane fuel allowed a homogeneous lean mixture with improved NOx and smoke emissions joint to a good thermal efficiency.

Rapid depletion of fossil fuels is urgently demanding an extensive research work to find out the viable alternative fuel for meeting sustainable energy demand without any environmental impact. In the future, our energy systems will need to be renewable, sustainable, efficient, cost-effective, convenient and safe. Therefore, researchers has shown interest towards alternative fuels like vegetable oils, alcohols, LPG, CNG, Producer gas, biogas in order to substitute conventional fuel i.e. diesel used in compression ignition (CI) engine. However, studies have suggested that trans-esterified vegetable oils retain quite similar physico-chemical properties comparable to diesel. Besides having several advantages, its use is restricted due to higher emissions i.e. NOx, CO, HC and deposits due to improper combustion. Hence, there is a need of cleaner fuel for diesel engines for the forthcoming stringent emissions norms and the fossil depletion.

In the present experimental investigation, performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a single cylinder diesel engine using diesel-biodiesel blends and antioxidant containing biodiesel test fuels was carried out. The potential suitability of aromatic amine based antioxidants to enhance the oxidation stability of biodiesel on one hand and reduction of tail pipe oxides of nitrogen (NOx) on the other were evaluated. Tertiary Butyl Hydroquinone (TBHQ) was considered as the antioxidant and Calophyllum Inophyllum vegetable oil was taken as the feedstock for biodiesel production. The test fuel samples were neat diesel (D100), 10% and 20% blend of Calophyllum biodiesel with diesel (CB10 and CB20) and 1500 ppm of TBHQ in CB10 and CB20 (CBT10 and CBT20). The results indicated that neat biodiesel blended test fuels (CB10 and CB20) exhibited lower brake thermal efficiency compared to the diesel baseline by a margin of 3% to 10% at full load.

Fuel cells are a promising energy source on account of their high efficiency and low emissions. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are clean and environmental-friendly power sources, which can become future energy solutions especially for transport vehicles. They exhibit good energy efficiency and high power density per volume. Working at low temperatures (<90°C), hydrogen fuelled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are identified as promising alternatives for powering autos, houses and electronics. At the middle of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The MEA consists of a proton exchange membrane, catalyst layers, and gas diffusion layers (GDL). However, most of the researchers have already mentioned that PEMFC are not competitive enough to rechargeable lithium ion battery with respect to price because of the rare metal used such as platinum in it.

As neat crude palm oil is not ideally suitable as a fuel for diesel engines because of its high viscosity; process of transesterification was adopted to develop methyl ester of palm oil that approximate the properties and performance of hydrocarbon-based diesel fuel. Various properties of the methyl ester of palm oil were evaluated and compared in relation with that of neat diesel. The prepared methyl ester of palm oil, blended in different concentrations with neat diesel was then subjected to performance and emission tests in order to evaluate its suitability in diesel engine. The data thus generated were compared with base line data generated from neat diesel. An optimal blend of 10-20% methyl ester of palm oil with neat diesel exhibited best performance and smooth engine operation without any symptoms of undesired combustion phenomenon. This suggests use of 10-20% of biodiesel developed from palm oil in diesel engine with out any difficulty.

The danger posed by climate change and the striving for securities of energy supply are issues high on the political agenda these days. Governments are putting strategic plans in motion to decrease primary energy use, take carbon out of fuels and facilitate modal shifts. Man's energy requirements are touching astronomical heights. The natural resources of the Earth can no longer cope with it as their rate of consumption far outruns their rate of regeneration. The automotive sector is without a doubt a chief contributor to this mayhem as fossil fuel resources are fast depleting. The harmful emissions from vehicles using these fuels are destroying our forests and contaminating our water bodies and even the air that we breathe. The need of the hour is to look not only for new alternative energy resources but also clean energy resources. Hydrogen is expected to be one of the most important fuels in the near future to meet the stringent emission norms.