Synthesis and Performance Evaluation of Fuel from Waste Plastics

Plastics are an integral part of our lives and the production of plastics has drastically increased over the years, because of its vast range of applications and usage. Due to this the accumulation of waste plastics has also increased in time. The waste plastic generated in India is 15000 tons per day (as per survey). The breakdown of plastics requires around 500 years in the earth and these waste plastics affect the humans, animals, birds, earth and environment. The demand for conventional fuel has also increased lately and the quantity of this fuel reserve has decreased simultaneously. The extensive usage of the conventional fuels has paved the path for alternative ways for energy sources and alternate fuels. The extraction of waste plastic oil is obtained by the process of pyrolysis which is nothing but the thermochemical decomposition of organic matter without oxygen. The extracted plastic pyrolysis oil is then blended with diesel which helps in reducing the consumption of diesel fuel. Different blend ratios are prepared consisting of the extracted waste plastic pyrolysis oil and diesel fuel. These fuels are tested in the engine to understand the variation in the engine performance and emissions with the help of a gas analyser. By this way, the suitable blend ratio is selected for further works. This blend of fuel can exhibit high thermal efficiency and increases machine efficiency. The fuel does not emit sulphur dioxide (SO2) and the residue obtained is only 5 percent which is said to be carbon.

Emission Characteristics of Third Grade Oil Converted Sesame Biodiesel

The demand and usage of fossil fuels has been increasing drastically, leading us to search for alternate fuels. The sesame seed is selected as an alternate fuel source, as a focus for this research paper. The sesame biodiesel is a type of fuel that has been obtained through the transesterification process from sesame oil using base catalyst transesterification. The sesame biodiesel was blended with four different ratios B10, B20, B30 and B40, among which B20 resulted with better stability, tested in the Kirloskar 240PE VCR engine at a compression ratio of 17.5:1 and 18:1 in various loads. The FTIR test was performed on sesame biodiesel, and it has shown that ester content was present in the test sample confirming its usage as the biodiesel. The fuel properties were found for all the three: sesame oil, sesame biodiesel(B20), diesel and it was found to be within the permissible limit. The result reveals that B20 is the best possible blend that has given good results in emission characteristics. The smoke emission testing was done on AVL emission analyser. It has been noted and observed that there is good reduction in CO, CO2, and HC than with standard diesel rate at all loads. An increased amount of NOx is observed as the load increases. It was also noted among the two compression ratios, 18:1 depicted best results considering the emission levels. It is observed that the sesame biodiesel can be used in IC diesel engines with a better outcome than the standard diesel rate. Hence, the work established the need for conversion of sesame seed oil to biodiesel and also suggests that sesame oil could be effectively used as feedstock for biodiesel production.

Performance enhancement using different nitromethane blends in a small two-stroke engine

Nitromethane being immiscible in gasoline, is often added to methanol to enhance the engine power output. But with the use of methanol as the base fuel, the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of the SI engine often doubles due to its lower heating value. To constrain this increase to a marginal value, a tri-component fuel blend consisting of nitromethane-alcohol-gasoline was prepared and observed to be stable. Methanol, ethanol, and butanol were the chosen alcohols for the tests due to their popularity as alternate fuels for SI engines. Tests on a small (35cc) two-stroke SI engine revealed that the torque produced with the use of tri-component blends was comparable to nitromethane-methanol blend and was on an average 1.35 times higher than gasoline. However, the BSFC with the nitromethane-butanol-gasoline blend was 50% lower than nitromethane-methanol blend and was only 14% higher than gasoline. The emission analysis showed lower HC emissions with the tri-component blends proving the improved combustion efficiency due to better mixing of the fuel-air mixture. Combustion analysis showed the increased heat release rate with nitromethane addition due to its higher flame speeds.

A Hybrid Genetic Programming–Gray Wolf Optimizer Approach for Process Optimization of Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel is one the most sought after alternate fuels in the current global need for sustainable and renewable energy sources due to their lower emissions and no major modification requirement to existing engines. However, the performance and productivity of the biodiesel production process are significantly dependent on the process parameters. In this regard, a novel hybrid genetic programming-gray wolf optimizer approach for the process optimization of biodiesel production is proposed in this paper. For an illustration of the proposed approach, kinematic viscosity is expressed as a symbolic regression metamodel to account for the influence of catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, alcohol-to-oil molar ratio, and reaction time. Then, the genetic programming-based symbolic regression metamodel is used as an objective function by the gray wolf optimizer to optimize the process parameters. The obtained results show that the proposed approach is simple, accurate, and robust.

IDI Engine With Alternate Fuels

A plethora of experiments were conducted on IDI engine with various biodiesels (e.g., methyl esters of mahua, jatropha, rice bran, pongamia, palm, beef tallow, and waste cooking oils). Review of the results of these endeavors with various additives and blends with or without super charging of the engine are presented in this chapter. All these attempts have been concentrated to arrive at the best yield from a single cylinder engine. The recorded pressure changes during combustion, the derived heat release rates, and exhaust emissions are presented in the form of plots at various loads and at a constant speed. Engine cylinder vibrations (reflect combustion excitation) in the form of FFT and time waves were recorded at radial points and vertical on the cylinder body to assess the combustion propensity in all cases of studies. The results with relative benefits are enumerated.