Title: Improving the performance and emission of CI engine using biofuel (Botryococcus)

Authors: J. Kuberan; N. Alagumurthi

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.K.P. Engineering College, Tiruvannamalai, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry, India

Abstract: In this modern world, the technology is developing day by day and hence, the demand on fossil fuels and power keeps on increasing. Since the demand is very high, it is impossible to power up the entire world using petrol and diesel. The depletion of fossil fuels and the worst impact on environmental pollution have led to the search for renewable clean energies. Micro algae are presently the favourable source of biofuels for the substitution of fossil fuels. This study focused on to extract bio-oil from the Botryococcus algae which has high lipid content, by using pyrolysis method. The Botryococcus algae oil is used as the biofuel in the direct injection (DI) diesel engine. The 90% diesel is blended with 10% Botryococcus algae oil and the test was carried out to analyse the effect of diesel-biofuel on the engine performance, emission and properties such as SFC, BTE, CO, NOx and HC. The experiment was conducted on a single cylinder four stroke diesel engine with diesel and biofuel blend at varying loads. The performance and emission results of the blended biofuel and diesel were compared, and the performance results, shows the biofuel blend is almost closer to the diesel, and the biofuel blend gives less emission than the diesel.

Keywords: Botryococcus algae; pyrolysis; diesel; biofuel; diesel engine.

DOI: 10.1504/PIE.2019.100908

Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal, 2019 Vol.13 No.3, pp.302 - 313

Received: 29 Mar 2018
Accepted: 19 Nov 2018

Published online: 19 Jul 2019 *

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