Bhaskor J. Bora

Influence of Emulsified Palm Biodiesel as Pilot Fuel in a Biogas Run Dual Fuel Diesel Engine

This study attempts to explore the influence of emulsified palm biodiesel as a pilot fuel in a biogas run dual fuel engine. The intention is to achieve diesel-equivalent performance from a diesel engine, together with a reduction in engine emissions, with complete replacement of fossil diesel with renewable fuels. The results of this study are compared to those for a neat biodiesel (Jatropha)-biogas dual fuel engine run at identical engine settings. For baseline comparison, the results are also compared with a standard diesel run. The results show that with the presence of biogas, emulsified biodiesel as a pilot fuel can present a better dual fuel efficiency (41%) and a lower energy consumption (38%) than neat biodiesel in a piloted study. Also, the presence of a microexplosion of emulsified biodiesel was found to reduce the pilot fuel consumption with the presence of biogas, especially at lower loads, where the burning rate of biogas usually slows down due to the lean gas-air mixture and cooler charge temperature. In addition, emulsified palm biodiesel successfully brings the peak cylinder pressure (PCP) closer (8 degrees ATDC) to top dead center (TDC). This elevates the magnitude of the PCP, which increases the expansion ratio and hence improves engine efficiency. With the presence of emulsified biodiesel, the supply of biogas is found to get reduced, especially at higher loads, which in turn reduces the hydrocarbon emission. However, other emission characteristics are not as exciting, and hence emulsified biodiesel in biogas dual fuel mode needs to be further explored at various engine-operating characteristics in order to obtain a superior emission performance

On the Attainment of Optimum Injection Timing of Pilot Fuel in a Dual Fuel Diesel Engine Run on Biogas

The race among the different nations to attain supremacy has given rise to twin crisis: depletion of fossil fuel reserves and degradation of environment. Every nation wants to increase the per capita income by producing more power. In order to achieve this feat, each nation has to burn huge amounts of fossil fuels causing an increase in the emission of greenhouse gases. In this regard, renewable energy can be a panacea to the above mentioned problems. Biogas, one form of biomass energy, has an immense potential as a renewable fuel. This biogas can be used successfully in diesel engines for the generation of power. However, in order to achieve an optimum efficiency, the operating parameters of the biogas run dual fuel engine have to be standardized. In such an engine, injection timing of the pilot fuel is one of the important operational parameters that greatly affects the engine performance. In view of this, in the present paper, an attempt has been made to standardize the injection timing of pilot fuel a biogas run dual fuel diesel engine on the basis of its performance and emission characteristics of. Experimental investigation demonstrates an improvement in efficiency and a reduction in emissions at the injection timing of 29° before top dead centre.Copyright

Effect of Load Level on Performance and Emission Characteristics of a Biogas Run Dual Fuel Diesel Engine

Energy consumption has increased steadily due to industrialization and rise in population of the world. Fossil fuel, especially crude oil, is the predominant energy source around the globe. However, the reserves of fossil fuel are limited and will be depleted in near future. Therefore, there is a great interest in exploring alternative renewable energy. Biogas, a renewable fuel, can be used in internal combustion engines for power generation. The utilization of biogas in diesel engines in dual fuel mode has colossal prospective if explored to the fullest. The current investigation unravels the influence of load level on the performance and emission characteristics of a biogas powered dual fuel diesel engine at different compression ratios. Results revealed that the performance and emission of a biogas powered dual fuel diesel engine improves at high load level. However, CO, CO2, HC, NOX emission and cylinder pressure increases at high load level.

Experimental Investigation of a Dual Fuel Diesel Engine Run on Scrubbed Biogas Using the Method of Adsorption

Global warming and depletion of fossil fuels have compelled the researchers to study the sources of renewable energy. Biogas, one of the most promising alternative renewable biofuel, is produced from anaerobic digestion. It mainly consists of methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) with traces of water vapor, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), siloxanes, hydrocarbons, ammonia, oxygen, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. The presence of high concentration of CO2 in biogas lowers the energy content per unit mass/volume. This limits its utility to only low quality energy applications where as H2S is a highly toxic and corrosive gas. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to transport and store biogas. Thus, the need emerges for a unified approach for scrubbing, compression and subsequent storage of biogas for wider applications. The current work presents the scrubbing of biogas using the method of adsorption. The quality of the scrubbed biogas studied by gas chromatography is presented. The scrubbed biogas is then tested in a dual fuel diesel engine as a primary fuel to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of the engine. The data obtained are compared with those of raw biogas run dual fuel diesel engine.Copyright

Emission Reduction Operating Parameters for a Dual-Fuel Diesel Engine Run on Biogas and Rice-Bran Biodiesel

AbstractBiogas has great potential as a clean alternative fuel for dual-fuel diesel engines. The present work is aimed at investigating the operating parameters such as compression ratio (CR) and injection timing (IT) for a dual-fuel diesel engine run on biogas and rice-bran biodiesel. The motivation behind this investigation is to obtain a diesel equivalent performance together with a reduction in emission. To achieve this, a single-cylinder, direct-injection, variable-compression-ratio diesel engine is modified into a dual-fuel diesel engine by incorporating a venturi gas mixer at the inlet manifold. A set of combinations composed of CRs of 17, 17.5, and 18 and ITs of 23°, 26°, 29°, and 32° before top dead center (BTDC) at different loading conditions are considered. The combination of IT=32° BTDC and CR=18 is found to produce a maximum brake thermal efficiency of 25.88% and a liquid fuel replacement of 82.75% at 100% load. On average, there is a reduction of carbon monoxide as well as hydrocarbon emiss...