Design and Performance Evaluation of a Variable-Feed Hydrous-Bioethanol Fuel Injector for Retrofitted Engine

The production of sugarcane is increasing in Nigeria nowadays. Juice extracted from sugarcane can be used extensively in manufacturing brown sugar, industrial sugar and bioethanol fuel through the process of fermentation; hence, the need to develop a machine that can extract juice from sugarcane effectively. This work involves the design, fabrication and performance evaluation of sugarcane juice extractor. The machine was designed to extract juice from sugarcane at small scale level suitable for small and medium scale sugarcane processors. The prototype machine was designed, fabricated and assembled in the Department of Agricultural and Bio-resources Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The machine consists of rollers, gears, cane guide, juice collector, frame, and prime mover. The developed machine was evaluated using koma variety of cane and obtained an output capacity of 148.2 kg/h and extraction efficiency of 67.44%, respectively at a speed of 30 rpm. The production cost stood at N 90,000 which is affordable and therefore recommended for small scale processors.

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Design and performance evaluation of a novel self-rotating fuel injector using computational fluid dynamics - a preliminary study

Thermal Science ◽

10.2298/tsci190812447c ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (1 Part A) ◽

pp. 271-280

Author(s):

Pichandi Chandrasekar ◽

Neelakantan Prasad ◽

Varadarajan Balamurugan ◽

Natteri Sudharsan

Keyword(s):

Fluid Dynamics ◽

Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽

Performance Evaluation ◽

Thermal Efficiency ◽

Cfd Simulation ◽

Design Procedure ◽

Fuel Injector ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

And Performance ◽

Rotating Injector

Improving the performance and reducing emissions in a diesel engine is the single most objective in current research. Various methods of approach have been studied and presented in literature. A novel but not so pursued study is on the performance of a rotating diesel injector. To date, there has been very little study by implementing a rotating injector. Studies have shown an improvement on the performance of an engine, but with a complicated external rotating mechanism. In the present research, a novel self-rotating fuel injector is designed and developed that is expected to improve the performance without the need for a complicated rotating mechanism. The design procedure, CFD simulation along with 3-D printing of a prototype is presented. Numerical modelling and simulation are performed to study the combustion characteristics of the rotating injector viz-a-viz a standard static injector. Comparison based on heat release, efficiency, and emissions are presented. While the proposed 9-hole injector had slight loss in thermal efficiency, the modified 5-hole had a slight increase in thermal efficiency when compared to the static baseline readings. The NOx reduced by 13% and CO increased by 14% compared baseline emissions for the 5-hole version.

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