M. Chandrasekaran

Effect of co-digestion agricultural-industrial residues: various slurry temperatures

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of co-digestion using industrial-agro waste and operating temperature of digester slurry to enhance the biogas and methane yield. The anaerobic digestion process is carried out by using a floating dome type bio-digester with the capacity of 1u2005m3. The co-digestion of press mud and rice straw with the ratio of 1:1, slurry temperature mesophilic range of (30–40°C) and thermophilic raange of (41–55°C) is used in this study. The maximum generation of daily biogas and weekly methane yield obtained were about 190u2005L/day and 55% in the case of the thermophilic condition. The lowest generation of daily biogas and weekly methane yield obtained were about 130u2005L/day and 33% in the case of mesophilic condition. The 10 percentage of cow dung is used as an inoculum of the digester and 30 days of hydro retention time for both the temperature ranges. The methane and biogas yield is at its peak and there was a faster hydro retention time in thermophilic range temperature at 52°C.

Effect of the addition of 1-pentanol on engine performance and emission characteristics of diesel and biodiesel fuelled single cylinder diesel engine

ABSTRACT Bioalcohols have recently become one of the promising alternate fuels. Lower alcohols exhibit some problems like phase separation, stability issues, storage problems, corrosion etc. Hence, the addition of higher alcohols is regarded least-problematic and the concept of using higher alcohols as fuel blends is relatively new. In this article, the effects of the addition of higher alcohol (1-pentanol) on engine performance and emission characteristics are discussed. Two reference fuels (diesel and biodiesel derived from waste cooking oil) and two test fuels (blends of 20% of 1-pentanol and 80% of either diesel or biodiesel) are tested in a single cylinder compression ignition diesel engine for six load conditions (0, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20u2009kg) at a constant speed of 1200u2009rpm. The engine performance and emission characteristics are determined and discussed.

Influence of modified pent roof combustion cavity on diesel engine performance and emission characteristics

ABSTRACT The utmost vital role of the IC engine burning chamber is to offer correct mixing of air and fuel in a little time to lessen the ignition lag phase, which determines the quality of the combustion, performance and the exhaust emission characteristics. To attain this, a systematised air movement termed ‘air swirl’ is offered to create high comparative velocity amongst fuel droplets and air. In this work, the engine piston head is modified to a 6° angle at the crown part, and the engine performance and emission analysis are carried out. The modified piston promotes speedier mingling between the inducted air and injected fuel, which speeds up the combustion process. By modifying the combustion chamber, we obtained a very less amount of NOx Emissions and a moderate amount of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions.

The influence of bio additive on the compression ignition engine with diesel and Jatropha methyl ester biodiesel

ABSTRACT The present experimental investigation evaluates the effects of using blends of diesel fuel with 20% concentration of Methyl Ester of Jatropha biodiesel blended with bio additive. Both the diesel and biodiesel fuel blend was injected at 23° Before Top Dead Centre to the combustion chamber. The experiment was carried out with three different ratios of bio additive. Biodiesel was extracted from Jatropha oil; 20% (B20) concentration is found to be best blend ratio from the earlier experimental study. The bio additive was added to B20MEOJ at various concentrations of 1u2009ml, 2u2009ml and 3u2009ml, respectively. The main objective is to obtain minimum specific fuel consumption, better efficiency and lesser Emission using bio additive blends. The results concluded that full load shows an increase in efficiency when compared with diesel, and highest efficiency is obtained with B20MEOJBA 3u2009ml bio additive blend. It is noted that there is an increase in thermal efficiency as the blend ratio increases. Biodiesel blend has a performance closer to that of diesel, but emission is reduced in all blends of B20MEOJBA 3u2009ml compared to that in diesel. Thus the work marks for the suitability of biodiesel blends as an alternate fuel in diesel engines.

Investigation on the effect of thermal barrier coating at different dosing levels of cerium oxide nanoparticle fuel on diesel in a CI engine

ABSTRACT In the recent times, the limitations on the exhaust emissions of the internal combustion engines are becoming increasingly rigorous due to environmental safety. Carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, particulates and hydrocarbon are the prime noxious waste emitted by diesel engines. This experimental study involves the analysis of engine performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder diesel engine with yttria- and ceria-stabilised zirconia coating on a cylinder liner and piston head. Varied dosing levels were added to diesel in both uncoated and coated engines. The experiment resulted in noticeable changes in the selected thermal barrier coating and dosing of cerium oxide additive nanoparticle in diesel. A surge of 2.1% in the brake thermal efficiency and downturn of 3% brake-specific fuel consumption when compared to standard diesel mode in the uncoated engine was discerned. Emission level of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon also underwent a considerable decline.

Control of carbon dioxide emission in automobile vehicles using CO2 scrubber

ABSTRACT Global warming and noise pollution are rapidly rising as catastrophic crises of the hour. Therefore, many pieces of research of the recent times are focused on addressing a solution to these issues. In case of the former, the concern lays in reducing the carbon dioxide emission and in the latter, it lies in the management of the excessive noises in the environment. The scruffler (scrubberu2009+u2009muffler), is one such system which helps in overcoming these problems in automobiles. The internal structure of the system consists of a layer made up of lithium hydroxide [LiOH], calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] and silicon dioxide [SiO2] in definite proportions. These chemicals possess an internal ability to absorb CO2 that is emitted from the exhaust of an engine. The effectiveness of the scruffler was tested at two levels: the emission test and noise pollution test. The emission test was carried out using gas analyzer and thermochemical and thermoconductometric instrument. The noise pollution test was carried out to analyze the sound levels using sound decibel metre. The results obtained at the end of these tests have been reported in this paper. A comparative analysis of engines with a scruffler and in the absence of it has also been reported. It is discovered that, in idling condition of the engine, the emission of CO2 without scruffler was 4% which was reduced to 3.608% after the scruffler was fixed. Similarly, in throttling condition, the emission of CO2 reduced from 9.20% to 7.958% with the help of the scruffler. It is also inferred that the presence of this system, reduced the production of excessive noise to a considerable extent.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT OF WATER/ETHYLENE GLYCOL-CARBON NANO TUBE NANOFLUIDS

ABSTRACT The objective of the project is to study the enhancement of convective heat transfer of secondary refrigerants. It is the function of different volume fractions as well as different operating temperatures. This project deals with the use of CNT nanofluids with CNT as a nanoparticle and EG/water as a base fluid. In this study the theoretical study of CNT and thermo physical properties were reviewed and discussed. To investigate the convective heat transfer, an experimental set-up is required. The experimental set-up is used to compare the thermo physical properties of CNT nanofluids. Abbreviations: CNT: carbon nanotube; EG: ethylene glycol; MWCNT: multi-walled carbon nanotube

Experimental studies on flow and heat transfer characteristics of secondary refrigerant-based CNT nanofluids for cooling applications

ABSTRACT The aim of the research work is to explore the convective heat transfer coefficient characteristics of propanol-based nanofluids for cooling applications. The stable suspension of the nanofluid with volume fractions of 0.15 and 0.3 is prepared and characterised. The measurement on the density shows that there is only a negligible increase in the density of the nanofluid and the specific heat of the nanofluid increases with the volumetric concentration of nanofluids. Furthermore, there is an enhancement in the convective heat transfer coefficient of 70% for the nanofluid containing 0.3% of CNT. Abbreviations: CNT: carbon nanotubes; IPA: isopropyl alcohol; MWCNT: multi-walled carbon nanotubes; SDBS: sodium dodecyl benzene sulphate

Behaviour of CI engine performance, combustion and exhaust emission with neem biodiesel at varied fuel injection rates

ABSTRACT Motorisation and fast depletion of fossil fuel reserves and issues like global warming have led the researchers all over to look for substitute fuels. Biodiesel resulting from vegetable oil is being used around the globe to lessen air pollution and reduce the necessity of diesel fuel. The current study covers the various aspects of N20 neem biodiesel with increased fuel injection pressure. The blends of N20 were tested with increased fuel injection pressure to examine the characteristics such as brake thermal efficiency, fuel consumption, emission and combustion parameters. Experimental results indicated that N20 with 240u2009bar has a closer performance to diesel, reduced exhaust emission and improved combustion parameters.

Empirical performance analysis of VCR engine fuelled with karanja oil and various additives using ANOVA technique

ABSTRACT In this present paper, an experimental study is carried out on a single cylinder, four-stroke variable compression ratio (VCR), direct injection diesel engine to analyse the performance characteristics of 20% karanja oil (B20) with diethyl ether, methanol and ethanol as an additives by substituting 5% and 10%, respectively. The engine is operated at the speed of 1500 rpm with VCRs 17 and 18. Analysis of performance parameters such as brake power, indicated power, brake thermal efficiency, mechanical efficiency, specific fuel consumption and indicated thermal efficiency are arrived by the IC engine analysis software which has been coupled with the VCR engine. The outcome data of these blends are to be compared with the ordinary diesel. The results are optimised by using the design of experiments (DOE) method in MINITAB 17.0 software to find out the suitable blend for the engine.