Arab J Sci Eng DOI 10.1007/s13369-017-2823-5 RESEARCH ARTICLE - MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Combustion Performance of Diesel Palm Olein Fuel: A Combined CFD and Experimental Approach Ahmad Hussain 1,2 · Syed Murtuza Mehdi 1 · Maaz Akhtar 1 · Farid Nasir Ani 3 · Iqbal Ahmed 4,5 Received: 23 February 2017 / Accepted: 20 August 2017 © King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals 2017 Abstract Industrial gas turbine fueled by blended palm olein is a promising option for electricity generation in next generation of gas turbines. In order to evaluate combustion performance of palm olein and blended diesel in a com- bustion chamber, detailed experimental investigations were done to evaluate the combustion performance of diesel and palm olein blended fuels. The experimental studies were con- ducted for 100% diesel and blending diesel with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60% palm olein (PO). The combustion perfor- mances were evaluated for blended oil and compared with diesel. The emission of NO ranged from 30–55 ppm while the soot emissions were high for high blended fuel. A max- imum blending ratio of 30% PO was recommended to be used in gas turbines in order to avoid any modification in the spray combustion system so that it can be utilized in exist- ing gas turbine systems. The computational fluid dynamic modeling of the combustor was also done, and a compari- son was made between the experimental and computational results. This can be helpful in future parametric studies of the combustor performance under different operating condi- tions. An acceptable level of comparison between numerical simulations and experimental findings was obtained as far B Ahmad Hussain ahmad@neduet.edu.pk 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hamdard University, Karachi, Pakistan 3 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor Bharu, Malaysia 4 Center of Excellence in Desalination Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as the flame structure is concerned. For high blended fuel, it was found out that increasing amount of soot particles can damage the blades of the turbine which ultimately requires early monitoring and maintenance scheduling. Keywords Blended palm olein · CFD · Industrial gas turbines · NO x · Soot · Combustion 1 Introduction One of the key interests in power generation industry is to focus more on emission control. Improvements are being done for controlling emissions without compromising the economics as well as reliability. Malaysia is one of the biggest exporter of palm oil and can also be considered as a promis- ing option for fuel substitution as well. In terms of suitability of palm oil as a potential biofuel in terms of cost and produc- tion capacity, palm oil is advantageous as compared to the vegetable oil as shown in Table 1. Palm oil is the most effective crop showing a high pro- ductivity of 302 tonne/km 2 /year as compared to rapeseed oil which has a productivity of 67 ton/km 2 /year [1]. The major drawback for using palm olein to be converted into biofuels was hampered by its high price compared to petroleum diesel as shown in Fig. 1. Aydin et al. [1] studied that for diesel engine, we obtain fuel from vegetable oils usage. The authors claimed low exhaust CO, HC emission and smoke levels. Also, Atabani et al. [2] studied the drawbacks which were associated with the use of non-edible oils. The authors [2] showed prospects that from non-edible oil the use biodiesel for future biodiesel production. The recent gas turbine units are working with single spe- cific fuel either gas or hydrocarbon liquid fuels. However, 123