2008-28-0066 Ricebran Oil Biodiesel’s Performance, Emission and Endurance Test on a CIDI Transport Engine Shailendra Sinha, Avinash Kumar Agarwal* Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur-208016, India Corresponding Author’s Email*: akag@iitk.ac.in Copyright © 2008 SAE International ABSTRACT Increased environmental awareness and depletion of resources are driving industry to develop alternative fuels that are environmentally more acceptable. Fatty acids esters (biodiesel) are known to be good alternative fuels. Due to economic reasons, the use of cheap raw materials for biodiesel production is preferred. In this case, ricebran oil, non-edible grade is used. Base catalyzed transesterification of ricebran oil is investigated and process parameters for ricebran biodiesel production are optimized. Various properties like viscosity, density, flash point, calorific value of biodiesel thus prepared are characterized as per ASTM D6751 and found comparable to mineral diesel. Steady state engine dynamometer test at 1800 rpm has been carried out to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of a medium duty transportation DI diesel engine. Emission tests with all the fuel blends have also been carried out using European 13 MODE test (ECE R49). Experimental investigations have been carried out to examine the combustion characteristics in a direct injection transportation diesel engine running with diesel, biodiesel (rice-bran oil methyl ester), and its blends. Endurance tests were conducted with 20% blend of the ROME with mineral diesel. Tests were conducted under predetermined loading cycles in two phases: engine operating on mineral diesel and engine fuelled with 20% biodiesel blend. To quantify the wear of cylinder liner, surface parameters and scanning electron microscopy at different location in the liner (TDC, BDC and mid stroke) were done and investigated. A qualitative analysis was also carried out by taking surface profiles at same locations. INTRODUCTION World is confronted with the twin crises of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation. The indiscriminate extraction and lavish consumption of fossil fuels have led to reduction in underground based petroleum reserves. Petroleum resources of most of the non-OPEC countries have already peaked or are going to peak in near future [1]. On the other hand transportation plays a key role in increasing emissions from fossil fuels. There is universal acceptance of the need for reducing such emissions. Over the past few decades, diesel engine technology has improved significantly. As a result, diesel cars are faster, more efficient, drive better and are quieter than ever before and these engines are gaining popularity in the passenger car segment also. Compared to the rest of the world, India’s demand for diesel fuels is roughly five times that of gasoline (39% of the total petroleum products) [2]. Recent events around the world have once again put energy security, and in particular oil import dependence, at the top of energy agenda of several countries of the world. Increasing dependence on oil import has become a serious cause of concern for India. In 2005-06, consumption of petroleum crude has increased to approximately 130 MMT, more than 75% of it was imported. Import bill has increased substantially during last two decades (US$ 1.36 billion in 1991 to whooping US$ 38.1 billion in 2005-06), which constituted 37% of the net export earnings [3]. Therefore, the issue of utilization of bio-fuels especially in diesel engines is very important for India. Many countries in the world have a general interest in vegetable oil as an alternative fuel to mineral diesel. Vegetable oils have combustion related properties somewhat similar to mineral diesel. However, several properties of oils, such as high viscosity, high molecular weight, and low volatility etc. cause poor fuel atomization leading to incomplete combustion resulting in problems like severe engine deposits, injector coking and piston ring sticking [4-10]. Due to these adverse effects on engines, straight vegetable oils are not suitable for use in engines; hence they need to be modified to bring their properties closer to mineral diesel. Among the various fuel modification techniques, transesterification is the most effective and widely used technique for formulating properties of vegetable oils [10-12]. Transesterification is a well established chemical reaction in which alcohol reacts with triglycerides of fatty acids in presence of a catalyst. It is a reversible reaction of fat or oil with a