Anoop Dixit

Combustion and Emission Characteristics of Variable Compression Ignition Engine Fueled with Jatropha curcas Ethyl Ester Blends at Different Compression Ratio

Engine performance and emission characteristics of unmodified biodiesel fueled diesel engines are highly influenced by their ignition and combustion behavior. In this study, emission and combustion characteristics were studied when the engine operated using the different blends (B10, B20, B30, and B40) and normal diesel fuel (B0) as well as when varying the compression ratio from 16.5 : 1 to 17.5 : 1 to 18.5 : 1. The change of compression ratio from 16.5 : 1 to 18.5 : 1 resulted in 27.1%, 27.29%, 26.38%, 28.48%, and 34.68% increase in cylinder pressure for the blends B0, B10, B20, B30, and B40, respectively, at 75% of rated load conditions. Higher peak heat release rate increased by 23.19%, 14.03%, 26.32%, 21.87%, and 25.53% for the blends B0, B10, B20, B30, and B40, respectively, at 75% of rated load conditions, when compression ratio was increased from16.5 : 1 to 18.5 : 1. The delay period decreased by 21.26%, CO emission reduced by 14.28%, and emission increased by 22.84% for B40 blends at 75% of rated load conditions, when compression ratio was increased from 16.5 : 1 to 18.5 : 1. It is concluded that Jatropha oil ester can be used as fuel in diesel engine by blending it with diesel fuel.

Development and Evaluation of Inclined Plate Metering Mechanism for Onion Pelleted Seeds

Development and Evaluation of Inclined Plate Metering Mechanism for Onion Pelleted Seeds The ability to place seeds at a given distance apart in a row is an important performance factor of a planter with single seed metering mechanism. Inclined plate seed metering device was developed and evaluated in laboratory for singulation and uniform placement of onion seeds with different pelleting ratio viz. 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 pelleted. Metering device was tested at three inclinations of 40°, 45°and 50° using plates having three different groove number 18, 24 and 30 on cells. Average seed spacing obtained at in S3 seed, θ2 angle in forward speed 2.0 km/h, the average spacing was observed to be 5.90, 5.35 and 5.15 cm for 18, 24 and 30 groove plate respectively. Missing index at 2.0 km/h forward speed with 24 groove seed metering plate with 45o inclination angle was 5.0% and multiple index was 11.0%. The overall quality of feed index obtained with these parameters was 84.0% which is maximum when compared with other seed treatments, forward speeds and types of seed metering plate combinations with different angle of inclination of plates. The selection of plate inclination and type of metering cell for the planter was purely based on average spacing, missing index, multiple index and quality of feed index. With 24 groove seed metering plate with 45o inclination angle and forward speed of 2.0 km/h was selected for the field evaluation..

Development of A Conveyor Seeder for Direct Sowing of Wheat in Combine-Harvested Rice Field

A prototype of 9-row conveyor seeder was developed to enable direct drilling of wheat in combine harvested rice field. In this machine, a pick up conveyor-cum-elevator has been attached in front of a no-till drill. The pickup conveyor-cum-elevator consist of spikes to lift loose paddy straw in front of furrow openers of the seed drill and drill wheat in between the standing stubbles. The loose straw settles on field as mulch. Power to the pickup conveyor-cum-elevator is provided by tractor PTO through gear box. Field trials of the machine were conducted during rabi 2012–13 and 2013–14. The average yield of the wheat crop sown with 9-row conveyor seeder was 4777.5 kg/ha. There was saving of 31.23 and 57.49 per cent in cost of operation with conveyor seeder over happy seeder and conventional method, respectively. Overall, there was economic saving of Rs 905/ha with conveyor seeder over conventional method whereas happy seeder resulted in saving of Rs 1160/ha over conveyor seeder. Sowing performance of the conveyor seeder was found to be encouraging, though there were some patches of straw in the field.

Comparative Performance Evaluation of Axial Flow and Tangential Axial Flow Threshing System for Basmati Rice (Oryza sativa)

Among all the food grains, basmati rice (Oryza sativa) has tremendous export potential. The basmati rice cultivar is very sensitive to mechanical abuses. The commercially available machines for paddy harvesting and threshing are not suitable for basmati varieties because of relatively delicate nature. There is an opinion regarding the performance of the axial flow machines that the breakage of grain is less than that of cross-flow machine. To know the exact status of grain breakage and other losses for basmati rice cultivar, a tangential axial flow (TAF) threshing cylinder was compared with fully axial flow cylinder for threshing basmati rice. The total grain loss in fully axial threshing cylinder was less as compared to TAF threshing cylinder. Grain breakage was also less in axial flow cylinder as compared to TAF cylinder. Threshing efficiency of TAF system was less as majority of the threshing takes place in first portion of the cylinder where threshing action is of cross-flow type. Cleaning efficiency was more in TAF cylinder compared to the axial flow cylinder. This may be due to higher separation length in the case of TAF cylinder.

Studies on compatible fuel properties of sunflower ethyl ester and its blends with diesel for fuel use in compression ignition engines.

The transesterification of refined sunflower oil by means of ethanol, using potassium hydroxide as catalyst, was studied. The objective of the work was to characterize the ethyl esters for its use as biodiesels in compression ignition engine. Transesterification experimental runs were carried out for varying oil: ethanol ratio (v/v of oil) with different catalyst concentrations at 65OC temperature and reaction time for 2 hr. The fuel characterization of ethyl ester was carried out and the results were found to be within international biodiesel standard specifications.