M.A. Kalam

The effect of palm oil trimethylolpropane ester on extreme pressure lubrication

This paper presents the experimental results for the extreme pressure characteristics of a palm oil-based trimethylolpropane (TMP) ester blended with paraffin oil obtained using a four-ball machine. The load and speed of the sample were set between 20–120 kg and 1770 rpm, respectively. TMP ester produced from palm oil is biodegradable and has high lubricity properties, such as a higher flash point temperature and viscosity index. It has an affinity to surface asperities, which reduces wear between sliding contacts. Based on the calculation, it was found that majority of the oils in boundary regime and mixed elastrohydrodynamic regime. For the same contact load, the film thickness with TMP100 is 70% thicker than that with paraffin oil. In addition to that, test results revealed that (1) for all the used lubrication oils, TMP ester blended with paraffin provide better surface protection compared to paraffin oil. (2) Even though, TMP100 has the highest film thickness, at low load the wear is higher. Surface morphology test was conducted using scanning electron microscope and surface roughness tester. It was found that severe corrosive wear occurred at TMP100 which is probably due to the high oxygen content compared to other lubricant.

Performance and Emission of a CI Engine Using Antioxidant Treated Biodiesel

Biodiesel has been a promising clean alternative fuel to fossil fuels, which cuts the emissions that are released by fossil fuels, and perhaps reduces the energy crisis induced by the exhaustion of oil resources in the near future. In this study, the effect of antioxidant additive on engine performance and emission characteristics of an engine fueled with palm biodiesel was investigated and compared with conventional diesel fuel. For this study, four fuel samples including pure diesel, diesel-biodiesel (B20), diesel-biodiesel-additive (B20+additive) and pure biodiesel (B100) were used in a multi cylinder, four stroke, water cooled, direct injection diesel engine. Engine tests were performed at various engine speed of 1000 rpm to 4000 rpm with 50% throttle opening. Engine performance and emission concentrations are investigated by determining the break specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake thermal efficiency, CO, HC, NOx and smoke opacity using gas analyzers. The results showed that the use of baynox plus solution as additive with palm methylester gave average 3.10% higher brake power as well as 23.2% and 2.40% lower NOx and brake specific fuel consumption than the biodiesel blend without additives.

Impact of edible and non-edible biodiesel fuel properties and engine operation condition on the performance and emission characteristics of unmodified DI diesel engine

ABSTRACT The purpose of this work is to test the feasibility of biodiesel as a substitute for diesel used in a direct injection (DI) diesel engine. The biodiesel was produced by an esterification and transesterification process. Experiments were conducted with diesel–biodiesel blends containing 10 and 20% biodiesel with the diesel fuel. The results of the biodiesel blends are compared with baseline diesel which was assessed at constant speed in a single cylinder diesel engine at various loading conditions. The physicochemical properties of palm and Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel and their blends meet the standard specification ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 standards. The maximum brake thermal efficiency was attained with diesel fuel, 10% palm biodiesel (PB10) and 10% C. inophyllum biodiesel (CI10) at all load condition except low load condition. Engine emission results showed that the 20% C. inophyllum with 80% diesel blend exhibited 6.35% lower amount of brake specific carbon monoxide, and the PB20 blend and CI20 blend reduced brake specific hydrocarbon emission by 7.93 and 9.5%, respectively. NOx emission from palm and C. inophyllum biodiesel blends are found to be 0.29–4.84% higher than diesel fuel. The lowest smoke intensity is found at 27.5% for PB10 and CI10 biodiesel blends compared with diesel fuel.

Environmentally friendly bio-lubricant lubricity testing

The objective of this paper is to investigate the wear phenomena of Jatropha and palm oil contaminated lubricant in elastrohydrodynamic lubrication with a four-ball machine. As a result, it was found that both Jatropha and palm oil has the potential in becoming an alternative lubricant in conventional machinery usage. However, Jatropha oil contaminated lubricant was a better lubricant in terms of low wear scar diameter, low coefficient of friction and high flash temperature parameter.

Effect of operating parameters and chemical treatment on the tribological performance of natural fiber composites: A review

ABSTRACT The demand for high-performance engineering products made from natural resources is increasing because of the low-cost, low-density, biodegradability, renewable nature and lighter than synthetic fibers. With these characteristics, the tribological performance of natural fiber composite has become an important element to be considered in most industrial and manufacturing functions. This paper presents an overview of the factors that influence the tribological performance of natural fiber composites, which include applied load, sliding distance, sliding velocity and fiber orientation. Influences of chemical treatment is also reviewed and illustrated through scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations. This review will focus on kenaf fibers (KFs) and oil palm fibers (OPFs) which have been widely exploited over the past few years among the available natural resources. The results show that the operating parameter, fiber orientation and chemical treatment has significant effects on the tribological performance of natural composite. A clear understanding of the factors that affect the tribological performance is very essential in performance improvement on natural fibers reinforced polymer composite for potential applications.

Influence of Coconut Biodiesel and Waste Cooking Oil Blended Fuels on Engine Performance and Emission Characteristics

Due to diminishing petroleum reserves and the environmental consequences of exhaust gases from petroleum fuelled engines, alternative fuels are becoming increasingly important for diesel engines. The processed form of vegetable oil (Biodiesel) and waste products (waste cooking oil) offer attractive alternative fuels for compression ignition engines. In this study experimental work has been carried out to investigate engine performance parameters and emissions characteristics for direct injection diesel engine using coconut biodiesel and waste cooking oil blends without any engine modifications. A total of three fuel samples, such as DF (100% low-sulfur diesel fuel), CB10 (10% coconut biodiesel and 90% DF), and C5W5 (5% CB + 5% waste cooking oil and 90% DF) respectively are used. Engine performance test was performed at 100% load keeping throttle 100% wide open with variable speeds of 1500 to 2400 rpm at an interval of 100 rpm. Whereas, emission tests were carried out at 2300 rpm at 100% and 80% throttle position. As the results of investigations, there has been a decrease in torque and brake power, where increase in specific fuel consumption has been observed for blend fuels over the entire speed range as compared to diesel fuel. In case of engine exhaust gas emissions, lower HC, CO, CO2 emissions and higher NOx emissions, were found for fuel blends compared to diesel fuel. However, sound level for both blend fuels was lower as compared to diesel fuel. It can be concluded that CB10 and C5W5 can be used in diesel engines without any engine modifications and have beneficial effects both in terms of emission reductions and alternative petroleum diesel fuel. However, C5W5 produced better results compared to CB10.Copyright

Thermal Balancing of a Multi-Cylinder Diesel Engine Operating on Diesel, B5 and Palm Biodiesel Blends

Energy crisis and global warming are the two most important issues that threaten the peaceful existence of the human species. More dependency on alternative fuels and energy loss minimization can be an effective solution to this affair. In this regard, thermal balance study of an internal combustion (IC) engine using different biodiesels is worthy of investigation. This manuscript provides an in-depth analysis of the engine heat losses in different subsystems of the engine. Finally, thermal balancing of the engine has been done by showing all energy flows in and out of the engine. The investigation was conducted in a four cylinder diesel engine fuelled with pure diesel, B5 (5% Palm biodiesel + 95% Diesel), 10% (PB10) and 20% (PB20) palm biodiesel blends at full load and in the speed range 1000 to 4000 RPM. The water heat loss and lubricating oil heat loss increased whereas the engine brake power, exhaust heat loss and unaccounted heat loss decreased with the increase of biodiesel percentage in the blends.

The effect of particle size on the dispersion and wear protection ability of MoS2 particles in polyalphaolefin and trimethylolpropane ester

The effect of particle size and surfactant on dispersion stability and wear protection ability was experimentally evaluated for polyalphaolefin (PAO 10) and bio-based base oil (palm trimethylolpropane ester) added with molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) particles. Nanolubricants were developed by adding 1 wt% of MoS2 particles that varied in size. In addition to the variation in particle size, an anionic surfactant was also used to analyze its interaction with both types of nanoparticles for stable suspensions and for the related effects on the antiwear characteristics. The wear protection characteristics of the formulations were evaluated by four-ball extreme pressure tests and piston ring on cylinder sliding wear tests. The wear surfaces were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy along with an energy-dispersive X-ray and an atomic force microscopy. The MoS2 nanoparticles with a nominal size of 20 nm exhibited a better load-carrying capacity, while better sliding wear protection was provided by nanoparticles with a nominal size of 50 nm.

Particulate Matter Emission Characteristics of a Biodiesel Fueled Engine at Idling Speed

Automotive and transportation sectors will be inclined towards the renewable or green energy in the near future. One of the green energy sources discovered recently is biodiesel. Biodiesel is a source of clean alternative fuel for internal combustion engines, which reduces the exhaust emissions significantly. Like diesel, biodiesel also emits exhaust particulate matter (PM), which is responsible for the black soot coming out from the diesel engine. However, it is not clear that what will be the size of PM formed during the idle speed of a biodiesel fueled engine. In this study, the characteristics of the exhaust particulate during the idling speed of a biodiesel fueled single cylinder diesel engine is analyzed. Biodiesel showed a positive result in terms of the concentration of emitted PM. However, particle sizes were smaller in case of biodiesel than diesel. Further studies should be carried out to improve the properties of biodiesel to ensure that the emitted particle sizes are not toxic to human health.

Tribological properties of hydrogen free DLC in self-mated contacts against ZDDP-added oil

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the tribological properties of tetrahedral diamond-like carbon (DLC) films in self-mated contacts in the presence of additivated and non-additivated vegetable oils. DLC films have high practical value due to low friction and low wear properties. On the other hand, vegetable oils are considered to be lubricants for future due to its resource renewability and biodegradability. Sometimes different chemical agents are added to vegetable oils to further improve its tribological properties. Thus, the tribological study of DLC films against additivated oils becomes important. Design/methodology/approach The tribology tests were conducted in a four ball tribo-meter under the boundary lubricated conditions. Findings Ta-C DLC exhibited 80 per cent lower wear rate under Zinc dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDP)-added oil compared to that of base oil. In contrast, the friction coefficient under additivated oil was slightly higher than the base oil lubricated case. Moreover, the carbonyl band area as well as the viscosity change of ZDDP-added oil was much smaller than that of base oil. Therefore, ZDDP reduced the wear of DLC film and prevented the oxidation of base oil during tribotests. Originality/value This is the first work on the tribological properties of ta-C DLC lubricated with corn oil with and without anti-wear additives.