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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.

Solar energy varies with time, intermittent; an accumulator unit is required to attach with collectors to collect energy for use when the sunshine is not available. This paper aims to design a system for storing the solar sensible heat thermal energy.

This paper presents the design and experimental evaluation of sensible heat thermal energy storage (TES) system for its energy storage performance by varying the air flow rate and packing material shape. Heat transfer fluid as air and solid concrete material of high density of different shapes were used for storage.

This paper presents the evaluation of data of number of experimental observations on the system. It was found that charging/discharging was based on the shape of the material and void fraction.

This paper provides the data for designing the TES, considering the concrete as storage material and shape of material for optimizing the system.

The purpose of this study is to get much insight about the combustion and emission characteristics of partially processed high free fatty acid linseed oil, i.e. esterified linseed oil (ELO), and diesel fuel in a single-cylinder compression ignition engine.

The variable compression ratio (CR) diesel engine (3.5 kW) of CR ranging from 12:1 to 18:1 is used for the experimentation purpose. In this study, CR varied from 16:1 to 18:1 for investigating the combustion and emissions characteristics of ELO. Various features such as combustion pressure, net heat release rate and mean gas temperature are analysed. The emission characteristics such as hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are investigated with different loads and CRs. The effect of an ambient temperature condition is also reported.

Results from this investigation reveal that the burning of ELO is found to be advanced for all CRs as compared to diesel fuel, whereas these features were found to be lower for a CR of 17. Emissions of ELO are found to be higher at all loads and CRs. Overall, this study provides a necessary framework to enhance further research in this area.

This investigation shows that ELO has better combustion in the first phase of combustion. However, the exhaust emissions of ELO have higher value due to improper combustion in the second and subsequent phase of combustion due to higher viscosity.

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine is an advanced combustion method to use alternate fuel with higher fuel economy and, reduce NOX and soot emissions. This paper aims to investigate the influence of ethanol fraction (ethanol plus gasoline) on dual fuel HCCI engine performance.

In this study, the existing CI engine is modified into dual fuel HCCI engine by attaching the carburetor to the inlet manifold for the supply of ethanol blend (E40/E60/E80/E100). The mixture of ethanol blend and the air is ignited by diesel through a fuel injector into the combustion chamber at the end of the compression stroke. The experiments are conducted for high load conditions on the engine i.e. 2.8 kW and 3.5 kW maximum output power for 1,500 constant rpm.

It is noticed from the experimental results that, with an increase of ethanol in the blends, ignition delay (ID) increases and the start of combustion is retarded. It is noticed that E100 shows the highest ID and low in-cylinder pressure; however, E40 shows the lowest ID compared to higher fractions of ethanol blends. An increase in ethanol proportion reduces NOX and smoke opacity but, HC and CO emissions increase compared to pure diesel mode engine. E100 plus diesel dual-fuel HCCI engine shows the highest brake thermal efficiency compared to remaining ethanol blends and baseline diesel engine.

This experimental study concluded that E100 plus diesel and E80 plus diesel gave optimum dual fuel HCCI engine performance for 2.8 kW and 3.5 kW rated power, respectively.