THE POTENTIAL OF METHANOL AS AN ALTERNATIVE MARINE FUEL FOR INDONESIAN DOMESTIC SHIPPING

This analysis aims to provide insight and to explore the future usage of methanol as an alternative marine fuel for domestic ships in Indonesia. An overview of potential application, analysis of resources availability, and stakeholder readiness on the topic are provided; related challenges are also identified and further examined. The potential performance of methanol as a fuel is discussed and evaluated via two different perspectives (the ship-owner perspective and the government one) through case studies of two passenger ships owned by the shipping company Pelayaran Indonesia (PELNI): MV. Labobar and MV. Gunung Dempo. As ship-owners tend to look very closely at the economic aspects, a feasibility study is performed by developing a combinatorial scenario approach based on the combination of economic measures of merit (NPV and payback period) along with a technical scenario (main-pilot fuel set-up); the variables included in the calculation are: ship age, ship productivity, and macro-economy conditions. Regarding the government perspective, the main issues are environmental protection and policy compliance. These issues are evaluated by examining six emission types (NOx, SOx, CO2, CH4, N2O, and PM). Additionally, since there is a trade-off situation in government subsidies between the government and ship-owner interests, an optimisation and sensitivity analysis is performed by utilizing a combinatorial scenario model to determine optimum methanol price and external variables influencing the decision to support further use of methanol in the Indonesian market. An important finding was that Indonesia has certain advantages/drives to introduce methanol as a marine fuel. However, methanol competitiveness is mainly dependent on ship productivity and the price difference between methanol and marine diesel oil (MDO). Additionally, policy analysis (through an optimisation approach) could be one of the government options in order to determine the optimum condition in establishing methanol as a marine fuel. Finally, short, medium, and long term recommendations are also provided as the basis for future consideration.

Performance and emission characteristics of biogas-bio diesel fuelled RCCI engine at various butanol-gasoline injection timings

Energy, a basic need of human life, has been playing significant role behind many technological developments. Most of the world’s commercial energy requirements are fulfilled by using fossil fuels. Combustion of fossil fuels releases toxic gases which in further turns as a source of pollution for the environment, globally. The present research work focused on minimizing the emissions that emerges during combustion in an IC engine through Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) mode. The performance and emission characteristics of a single-cylinder CI engine are analyzed with 3 different fuels; biodiesel, butanol-gasoline (1:4 ratio), and biogas. The operational loads taken for the present study falls in the range from 5 N-m to 20 N-m at the engine speed of 1800 RPM. The influence of biogas on the emission characteristics is exclusively carried out with two different flow rates; 12lpm and 16lpm. The injection timings for butanol-gasoline blend are varied from 0 to 8ms. Fuel properties such as Viscosity, Vapor pressure, Density, Cloud point, Pour point, and Flashpoint are estimated. Engine parameters such as Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE), Volumetric Efficiency (VE), HC, CO, NOx and smoke emissions, Peak pressure, Heat Release Rate (HRR), Ignition Delay, are analyzed. It is observed from the experiments that increasing injection time of pilot fuel - increases the HC and CO emissions; reduces the NOx emissions; decreases the smoke level with increase in biogas flow rate; and decreases the BTE, VE, and HRR

COMBINED BIOMASS UTILIZATION SYSTEM

The purpose of this study is to analyze existing technologies and optimize their operation in a closed-loop production and use of biomass fuel based on existing chemical-biological technologies of biochemical processing of biomass and its anaerobic fermentation processes. The article presents a fundamentally new scheme of biomass utilization of different origins, the implementation of this scheme of utilization of household, sewage, industrial and technological biomass waste will solve simultaneously the problem of preserving the environment in an environmentally friendly condition, to obtain during processing energy sources thermal energy to ensure the flow of biochemical and thermal processes in the installation, and to produce pilot fuel for its use in the processes of heat production of decentralized heating systems and energy production of small and medium-sized settlements, private estates and cottages.

Applying detailed chemistry for the dual-fuel engine combustion process simulation using CFD approach

Modern research in the area of internal combustion engines is focused on searching and investigating the technologies that will improve fuel efficiency and decrease emissions. The application of dual-fuel engines is considered a potential solution to these problems. In the dual-fuel engine, the natural gas-air mixture is ignited by a small amount of diesel fuel directly injected into a combustion chamber. This paper aims to develop a detailed chemistry mechanism for 3D simulation of the combustion process of a dual-fuel engine, providing sufficient convergence with the experimental data. It should be noted that sufficient convergence must also be provided in terms of such parameters as pilot fuel ignition delay and premixed air-fuel mixture flame propagation speed. In the course of the research, the analysis of the most commonly used detailed chemistry mechanisms for calculation of the combustion process and mechanisms’ disadvantages was performed. The results obtained with the use of the detailed mechanisms were compared with the results obtained without using detailed chemistry and with the experimental data as well.

Evaluating the effect of DEE blending ratio in biogas-biodiesel fuelled dual-fuel engine

Fossil fuels are depleting faster than being consumed. Fuels with higher efficiency, less consumability, and ecocity are very much desired for the present scenario. In this investigation, a conventional single-cylinder CI engine is utilized in dual-fuel mode, in which biogas is the primary fuel while biodiesel (palm oil) with different DEE blending ratios is used (5%, 10%, and 15%) as a secondary fuel. For each DEE blend, biogas flow rate and loads are varied and their effect on brake thermal efficiency, pilot fuel energy ratio, CO, NOx, and HC emissions are estimated. Exhaust gas emissions were calculated using an AVL 5-gas emission analyser. The calorific value and density of each sample are calculated. It is witnessed from the experiments that 5% DEE used with lower biogas flow rate resulted in high brake thermal efficiency of 31.83%. Also, an increase in DEE is found to increase NOx emission while an increase in biogas flow rate resulted in a reduction in NOx emission. The addition of biogas is experimentally observed to have the potential in reducing pilot fuel consumption.