Wear Assessment in a Biodiesel Fueled Compression Ignition Engine

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (3) ◽  
pp. 820-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Agarwal ◽  
J. Bijwe ◽  
L. M. Das

Biodiesel is prepared using linseed oil and methanol by the process of transesterification. Use of linseed oil methyl ester (LOME) in a compression ignition engine was found to develop a highly compatible engine-fuel system with low emission characteristics. Two similar engines were operated using optimum biodiesel blend and mineral diesel oil, respectively. These were subjected to long-term endurance tests. Lubricating oil samples drawn from both engines after a fixed interval were subjected to elemental analysis. Quantification of various metal debris concentrations was done by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Wear metals were found to be about 30% lower for a biodiesel-operated engine system. Lubricating oil samples were also subjected to ferrography indicating lower wear debris concentrations for a biodiesel-operated engine. The additional lubricating property of LOME present in the fuel resulted in lower wear and improved life of moving components in a biodiesel-fuelled engine. However, this needed experimental verification and quantification. A series of experiments were thus conducted to compare the lubricity of various concentrations of LOME in biodiesel blends. Long duration tests were conducted using reciprocating motion in an SRV optimol wear tester to evaluate the coefficient of friction, specific wear rates, etc. The extent of damage, coefficient of friction, and specific wear rates decreased with increase in the percentage of LOME in the biodiesel blend. Scanning electron microscopy was conducted on the surfaces exposed to wear. The disk and pin using 20% biodiesel blend as the lubricating oil showed lesser damage compared to the one subjected to diesel oil as the lubricating fluid, confirming additional lubricity of biodiesel.

Author(s):  
Avinash Kumar Agarwal ◽  
Jayashree Bijwe ◽  
L. M. Das

Abstract Biodiesel is prepared using linseed oil and methanol by the process of transesterification. Use of linseed oil methyl ester (LOME) in compression ignition engine was found to develop a highly compatible engine-fuel system with low emission characteristics. Two similar engines were operated using optimum biodiesel blend and mineral diesel oil respectively. These were subjected to long-term endurance tests. Lubricating oil samples drawn from both engines after a fixed interval were subjected to elemental analysis. Quantification of various metal debris concentrations was done by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Wear metals were found to be about 30% lower for biodiesel-operated engine system. Lubricating oil samples were also subjected to ferrography indicating lower wear debris concentrations for biodiesel-operated engine. The additional lubricating property of LOME present in the fuel resulted in lower wear and improved life of moving components in biodiesel-fuelled engine. However, this needed experimental verification and quantification. A series of experiments were thus conducted to compare the lubricity of various concentrations of LOME in biodiesel blends. Long duration tests were conducted using reciprocating motion in SRV optimol wear tester to evaluate the coefficient of friction, specific wear rates, etc. The extent of damage, coefficient of friction, and specific wear rates decreased with increase in the percentage of LOME in the biodiesel blend. Scanning Electron microscopy was conducted on the surfaces exposed to wear. The disc and pin using 20% biodiesel blend as lubricating oil showed lesser damage compared to the one subjected to diesel oil as lubricating fluid, confirming additional lubricity of biodiesel.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 604-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Agarwal ◽  
J. Bijwe ◽  
L. M. Das

The combustion related properties of vegetable oils are somewhat similar to diesel oil. Neat vegetable oils or their blends with diesel, however, pose various long-term problems in compression ignition engines, e.g., poor atomization characteristics, ring-sticking, injector coking, injector deposits, injector pump failure, and lube oil dilution by crank-case polymerization. These undesirable features of vegetable oils are because of their inherent properties like high viscosity, low volatility, and polyunsaturated character. Linseed oil methyl ester (LOME) was prepared using methanol for long-term engine operations. The physical and combustion-related properties of the fuels thus developed were found to be closer to that of the diesel oil. A blend of 20 percent was selected as optimum biodiesel blend. Two similar new engines were completely disassembled and subjected to dimensioning of various vital moving parts and then subjected to long-term endurance tests on 20 percent biodiesel blend and diesel oil, respectively. After completion of the test, both the engines were again disassembled for physical inspection and wear measurement of various vital parts. The physical wear of various vital parts, injector coking, carbon deposits on piston, and ring sticking were found to be substantially lower in case of 20 percent biodiesel-fuelled engine. The lubricating oil samples drawn from both engines were subjected to atomic absorption spectroscopy for measurement of various wear metal traces present. AAS tests confirmed substantially lower wear and thus improved life for biodiesel operated engines.


Author(s):  
A K Agarwal

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel derived from vegetable oils by modifying their molecular structure through a transesterification process. Linseed oil methyl ester (LOME) was prepared using methanol in the presence of potassium hydroxide as a catalyst. The use of LOME in compression ignition engines was found to develop a very compatible engine-fuel system with lower emission characteristics. Two identical engines were subjected to long-term endurance tests, fuelled by an optimum biodiesel blend (20 per cent LOME) and diesel oil, respectively. Various tribological studies on lubricating oil samples drawn at regular intervals from both engines were conducted in order to correlate the comparative performance of the two fuels and the effect of fuel chemistry on lubricating oil performance and life. A number of tests were conducted in order to evaluate the comparative performances of the two fuels such as density measurement, viscosity measurements, Flashpoint determination, moisture content determination, pentane and benzene insolubles, thin layer chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, etc. All these tests were used for an indirect interpretation of the comparative performance of these fuels. The performance of biodiesel fuel is found to be superior to that of diesel oil and the lubricating oil life is found to be longer while operating the engine on biodiesel


Author(s):  
Avinash Kumar Agarwal

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel derived from vegetable oils by modifying their molecular structure through transesterification process. Linseed oil methyl ester (LOME) was prepared using methanol in the presence of potassium hydroxide as catalyst. Use of linseed oil methyl ester in compression ignition engines was found to develop a very compatible engine-fuel system with lower emission characteristics. Two identical engines were subjected to long-term endurance tests, fuelled by optimum biodiesel blend (20% LOME) and diesel oil respectively. Various tribological studies on lubricating oil samples drawn at regular intervals for both engines were conducted in order to correlate the comparative performance of the two fuels and the effect of fuel chemistry on lubricating oil performance and life. A number of tests were conducted in order to evaluate comparative performance of the two fuels such as density measurement, viscosity measurements, flash point determination, moisture content determination, pentane and benzene insolubles, thin layer chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry etc. All these tests were used for indirect interpretation of comparative performance of these fuels. Biodiesel fuels performance is found to be superior to that of diesel oil and the lubricating oil life is found to have increased, while operating the engine on this fuel.   NOTE: This paper was presented at the ASME 2003 Internal Combustion Engine Division Spring Technical Conference but was printed in the ASME 2003 Internal Combustion Engine and Rail Transportation Divisions Fall Technical Conference proceedings, pages 427–441. It should appear under the Lubrication and Friction heading.


2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paramvir Singh ◽  
S. R. Chauhan ◽  
Varun Goel ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta

This paper presents lubricating oil performance in a compression ignition (CI) engine fueled with a binary fuel blend of 70% aamla seed oil biodiesel and 30% eucalyptus oil (EU) on volume basis. This blended fuel was stable and congruent with engine-fuel system. Initially, the engine was operated with normal diesel fuel as per standard endurance test. The same endurance test was performed with the above binary biodiesel blended fuel in the engine under somewhat modified engine operational condition. The lubricating oil was examined at a specified interval to evaluate the impact of the fuel on lubricating oil properties. Quantification of various metal debris concentrations was carried out using inductive coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. After experimentation, the lubricating oil samples were analyzed using analytical ferrography that showed lower wear debris concentrations from binary biodiesel blend than diesel fuel operated engine. The better lubricating property of binary biodiesel blended fuel resulted in lower wear and improved performance of engine parts. Relatively low wear and concentrations of all metal wear were found in the lubricating oil with binary biodiesel blended fuel engine revealed better performance of engine with this fuel blend. No technical problem was encountered during the long-term endurance tests with the binary biodiesel blended fuel under modified engine parameters.


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