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This paper aims to investigate the tribological performance of the decanter cake feedstock biodiesel which was blended in 5 and 10 per cent volume with petroleum diesel.

The tribological performance of the decanter cake biodiesel was tested using the modified ASTM D4172 standard with temperature range from 300°C to 750°C and load range from 392 to 981 N while spindle speed is at 1,200 rpm.

At 5 per cent volume of biodiesel, friction reduced ranging from 10 to 45 per cent at all temperature and load ranges, whereas specific wear rate reduced ranging from 22 to 29 per cent at low load and 4 per cent to 15 per cent at high load for all temperature ranges. Addition up to 10 per cent volume of biodiesel reduced friction ranging from 10 to 35 per cent at all temperature and load ranges, whereas specific wear rate reduced ranging from 15 to 29 per cent only at low load for all temperature ranges.

The standardised test may not represent the actual condition of a real running diesel engine.

Because the lubricity of biodiesel was difficult to determine in a real running engine, this paper provided a standardised test for simplification.

Engine component endurance is related to fuel properties. Decreasing the sulfur content of a fuel reduces its lubricity, thus damaging engines and fuel systems. Therefore, promoting the use of a biofuel must involve assessing the functionality and lubricity of the fuel.

The ball-on-ring (BOR) wear tester was applied to determine the optimal additive concentration and the mechanism of reduction of the wear and friction of the diesel engine fuel injection system. The lubricating efficiency of the fuels was estimated by using a photomicroscope to measure the average diameter of the wear scar produced on the test ball. An optical microscope and scanning electronic microscope were used for wear surface examinations.

The wear test revealed that the wear diameter of the steel ball lubricated with either the pure petrodiesel or 20 Wt.per cent Jatropha curcas biodiesel blends was 1.36 or 1.05 mm, respectively. The experimental results indicated that when Jatropha curcas biodiesel was added into petrodiesels to reduce friction, the wear resistance of the fuel blends increased concurrently with increasing Jatropha curcas biodiesel concentration. This was attributed to the presence of stearic acid in Jatropha curcas biodiesel blends. Stearic acid has a strong affinity for metal surfaces; therefore, a chemical coating was formed between the two motion surfaces to protect the two contacted surfaces from wear. Therefore, the proposed Jatropha curcas biodiesel can be used to effectively enhance the lubricity of a petrodiesel under the condition of boundary lubrication.

Using biofuels as the fuels for diesel engines can assist developed and developing countries in reducing the impacts of their fossil fuel consumption on the environment.

Combustion of fuel with oxidizer inside a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine forms inevitable oxides of nitrogen (NOx) due to high temperature at different locations of the combustion chamber. This study aims to quantify NOx formed inside the combustion chamber using two fuels, a conventional diesel (n-heptane) and a biodiesel (methyl oleate).

This research uses a computational fluid dynamics simulation of chemically reacting fluid flow to quantify and compare oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in a compression ignition (CI) engine. The study expends species transport model of ANSYS FLUENT. The simulation model has provided the temperature profile inside the combustion chamber, which is subsequently used to calculate NOx using the NOx model. The simulation uses a single component hydrocarbon and oxygenated hydrocarbon to represent fuels; for instance, it uses n-heptane (C₇H₁₆) for diesel and methyl-oleate (C₁₉H₃₆O₂) for biodiesel. A stoichiometric air–fuel mixture is used for both fuels. The simulation runs a single cylinder CI engine of 650 cm³ swept volume with inlet and exhaust valves closed.

The pattern for variation of velocity, an important flow parameter, which affects combustion and subsequently oxides of nitrogen (NOx) formation at different piston locations, is similar for the two fuels. The variations of in-cylinder temperature and NOx formation with crank angles have similar patterns for the fuels, diesel and biodiesel. However, the numerical values of in-cylinder temperature and mass fraction of NOx are different. The volume averaged static peak temperatures are 1,013 K in case of diesel and 1,121 K in case of biodiesel, while the mass averaged mass fractions of NOx are 15 ppm for diesel and 141 ppm for biodiesel. The temperature rise after combustion is more in case of biodiesel, which augments the oxides of nitrogen formation. A new parameter, relative mass fraction of NOx, yields 28% lower value for biodiesel than for diesel.

This work uses a new concept of simulating simple chemical reacting system model to quantify oxides of NOx using single component fuels. Simplification has captured required fluid flow data to analyse NOx emission from CI engine while reducing computational time and expensive experimental tests.

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of biodiesel additive in fuel system of diesel engines to reduce wear characteristics. Biofuels are environmentally friendly and renewable alternatives to mineral-based fuels and cause low pollution; thus, they can be used to comply with future emission regulations to safeguard environmental and human health.

Two types of diesel fuel, pure petrodiesel and soybean oil, were compared for their fuel properties and tribological performance. The ball-on-disk wear testing method was used as an analytical tool for this purpose. The lubricating efficiency of the fuels was estimated using a photomicroscope to measure the average diameter of the wear scar produced on the test ball.

The wear experiments showed that the wear scar diameters were 1.13 and 0.94 mm for lubrication of the pure petro-diesel and soybean oil, respectively. However, fatty acids containing biodiesel typically have thicker molecular layers than mineral pure petro-diesel, and thus can reduce the wear rate of the sliding metals. This improved the boundary lubrication conditions and the lubricity of the fuel. Biodiesel fuels are effective lubricity enhancers and have greater lubricity enhancing properties than petro-diesel.

The ability of biodiesel to be highly biodegradable and its superior lubricating property when used in compression ignition engines make it an excellent fuel. Biofuel is an attractive alternative fuel to various energy sectors, particularly the transportation sector. Biofuel has immense potential for use in a sustainable energy mixture in the future.

This case describes a real family that has been running a labor-intensive business since 1992. The father, Phil Mason, runs the business with the help of his wife and two of his sons in southwestern Rhode Island. The business is a franchisee of ServiceMaster Clean. In 2006, the franchise employed 20 full-time employees and was the 50th largest ServiceMaster Clean franchise among the approximately 1,200 franchises located in the United States. Annual revenue is approximately $2.5 million. In late 2005, one of Phil℉s sons began researching the biodiesel industry. As he was growing weary of the labor-intensive nature of his franchise business, Phil fully researched the industry himself. By the middle of 2006, Phil was convinced that he could profitably manufacture biodiesel in his spare warehouse space. In July 2006, he formed Mason Biodiesel, LLC and financed the $1.5 million start-up costs through a combination of personal savings and bank debt.

This study aims to improve the performance and to regulate the harmful emission from the diesel engine. For this purpose, palm oil biodiesel (POBD), waste cooking biodiesel (WCBD) and animal fat biodiesel (AFBD) are used for examination.

The transesterification process was followed to convert the three raw oils into biodiesels and the experiments are conducted at various loads with fixed 25 rps. Diesel as a reference fuel and three neat biodiesels are tested for emissions and performance. By training the experimental results in an artificial neural network (ANN), the best biodiesel was predicted.

The biodiesels are tested for significant fuel properties with the American Society for testing and materials standards and observed that kinematic viscosity, density and cetane number are recorded higher than diesel fuel. The fatty acid composition (FAC) from chromatography reveals the presence of unsaturated FAC is more in POBD (70.89%) followed by WCBD (57.67%) and AFBD (43.13%). The combustion pressures measured at every degree of crank angle reveal that WCBD and AFBD exhibited on far with diesel fuel. Compared to diesel fuel WCBD and AFBD achieved maximum brake thermal efficiency of 31.99% and 30.93% at 75% load. However, there is a penalty in fuel consumption and NOx emissions from biodiesels. On the other hand, low carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbon emissions and exhaust smoke are reported for biodiesels. Finally, WCBD was chosen as the best choice based on ANN modeling prediction results.

There is no evident literature on these three neat biodiesel applications with the mapping of ANN modeling.

Vast areas have been studied toward combustion and emission analysis in vegetable oil methyl esters and quite a few in algal oil biodiesel. To analyze the better alternate source for diesel engine, this study aims to investigate the combustion behavior and emission characteristics between cottonseed biodiesel and algal oil biodiesel on comparison with mineral diesel in a compression ignition engine.

The fuel properties like density, kinematic viscosity, calorific value and Cetane number have met the biodiesel standards for both algal and cottonseed biodiesel. At rated power, engine was operated on all three test fuels, where combustion analysis describing in-cylinder pressure, peak pressure, rate of pressure rise and rate of heat release and emission characteristics including hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and smoke for both biodiesel comparing mineral diesel.

Algal and cottonseed biodiesel showed up to 2-3°CA delayed start of combustion comparing mineral diesel curve. The in-cylinder pressure of algal biodiesel was found to be 68 bar, whereas cottonseed biodiesel exhibited 65 bar at full load condition. Similarly, the rate of pressure rise and rate of heat release of algal biodiesel depicted 7.9 and 10.7 per cent rise than cottonseed biodiesel, respectively. As the load increased, ignition delay showed decreasing trend, while combustion duration showed an increasing trend. HC, CO and smoke emissions were seen to be lower than mineral diesel with noticeable increase in NOx emission.

In this present investigation, biodiesel from Stoechospermum Marginatum, a marine marco algae, was used to fuel the compression ignition engine. Its combustion behavior and emission characteristics are compared with cottonseed biodiesel, a vegetable oil-based biodiesel having similar physio-chemical characteristics to understand the suitability of algal biodiesel in compression ignition engine. This study involves the assessment of straight biodiesel from macro algae and cottonseed oil on standard operating conditions.

This study aims to find a new alternate source for biodiesel conversion. The alternate source must be easily available, and it should give more oil yield than available edible, inedible sources. To meet the fuel demand in the transportation sector with edible oil-based biodiesel causes food versus fuel crisis. In addition to this, it increases NO_x and CO₂ in the environment.

The present paper reviews the comparison of algae oil yield, fatty acid composition and its biodiesel properties’ effect on diesel engine characteristics.

Algae were the only source to fulfil fuel demand because its oil and biodiesel yield is higher than other sources. Algae can grow by capturing carbon dioxide from the environment, and its fatty acid composition is more suitable to run diesel engines.

There is an improvement in engine performance–emission tradeoff with algal biodiesel.

This study aims to contrastively investigate the effects of biodiesel and diesel on the power, economy and combustion characteristics of a compression ignition aviation piston engine for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Biodiesel used as alternative fuel will not be mixed with diesel during experimental study. Pure diesel fuel is used for the comparative test. Same fuel injection strategies, including pilot and main injection, are guaranteed for two fuels in same test points.

The engine-rated power of biodiesel is lower than diesel, which results in higher specific fuel combustion (SFC) and effective thermal efficiency (ETE). Biodiesel has the faster burning rate, shorter combustion duration. The crank angle of 50% mass fraction burned (CA50) is earlier than diesel. The ignition delay angle of biodiesel and diesel in the pilot injection stage is almost the same at high engine speed. As the speed and load decrease, the ignition delay angle of biodiesel in the pilot injection stage is smaller than diesel. At 100% high load conditions, the fuel-burning fraction of biodiesel in the pilot injection is the same as diesel. The peak heat release rate (HRR) of biodiesel is slightly lower than diesel. At 20% part load conditions, the fuel-burning fraction of biodiesel in the pilot injection stage is lower than diesel. Because of the combustion participation of unburned pilot injected fuel, the peak HRR of biodiesel in the main injection is equal to or even higher than diesel.

The application feasibility of alternative fuel and its effects on aviation engine power, economy and combustion characteristics will be evaluated according to the “drop-in“ requirements and on the low-cost premise without changing the aviation engine structure and parameters.

Compression ignition engines are being used in transportation, agricultural and industrial sectors due to its durability, fuel economy and higher efficiency. This paper aims to present investigation focuses on the utilization of nano additives in emulsified blends of Pongamia biodiesel and its impact on combustion, emission and performance characteristics of a diesel engine.

Pongamia biodiesel was produced through two-stage transesterification process. Taguchi method with L₉ Design of experiment was adopted to study the stability of fuel blends and 75 per cent diesel, 20 per cent biodiesel, 5 per cent water and 6 per cent of surfactant was found to be stable. Further, aluminum oxide nanoparticle was blended into the emulsified fuel in mass fraction of 100 ppm (D75-BD20-W5-S6-AO100) through ultrasonicating technique.

Oleic acid was found to be in prominent proportion in the Pongamia biodiesel. It was observed that D75-BD20-W5-S6 and D75-BD20-W5-S6-AO100 had the ability to produce lower in-cylinder pressure and rate of heat release compared to D100, B100 and D75-BD20 fuel blends. However, a higher rate of pressure rise was noticed in D75-BD20-W5-S6 and D75-BD20-W5-S6-AO100. Lower brake specific fuel consumption and relatively higher brake thermal efficiency were noticed in D75-BD20-W5-S6 and D75-BD20-W5-S6-AO100. Moreover, lower NO_x and smoke emission were also observed for nano-emulsified fuel blends.

Metal-based nano-additive significantly improved the physio-chemical properties of the fuel. Based on the literature, it is understood that emulsified biodiesel blend with nano enrichment using Pongamia biodiesel as base fuel was not carried out. Identifying a stable blend of diesel-biodiesel-water-nano additive using Taguchi’s design of experiments approach was an added value in formulating the test fuels. Furthermore, the formulated test fuel was compared with mineral diesel, biodiesel, and diesel-biodiesel blend to understand its suitability to use as a fuel in compression ignition (CI) engine.