13-07-2013, 12:28 PM
PONGAMIA OIL AS AN ALTERNATE FUEL IN I.C ENGINE
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ABSTRACT
Energy, a crucial input in the process of economic, social and industrial development is of vital importance. Fossil fuels like petroleum and Diesel are the primary energy resources that contribute more to global energy requirement. Petroleum derivatives cater to the entire fuel needs of internal combustion engines, Which contribute largely to the mobility of our modern society, identified as the transportation sector. Even the optimistic estimates predict that the fossil fuels, in particular petroleum oil will be depleted within three decades due to the steep rate of its consumption.so there is a strong quest for alternate fuels.
The work presented is an attempt to evaluate Pongamia oil as a fuel for compression ignition engine, compared to Diesel. The experiment was conducted on a Kirloskar engine, Which was operated both on Pongamia oil and Diesel under identical conditions. Their performance and combustion characteristics were analyzed and it was found that pongamia oil is an acceptable and beneficial CI engine fuel.
INTRODUCTION
The fast depleting fossil fuels are casing a great concern world wide. For a developing country like India, where a major part of it’s fuels demands are met through imports, any alternate fuel will have a welcoming effect. Investigations are being carried out to substitute with non-edible, Vegetable oil in IC Engines. Compression Ignition engines play a much greater role in the economics of developing nations than spark ignition engines, especially in the fields of heavy transportation and agricultural applications because of their higher thermal efficiency and durability.
Being renewable in nature, the vegetable oils and alcohols appear to be attractive replacements for petroleum fuels. For the present work, pongamia oil, a non-edible vegetable oil is chosen.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM
The main objective of the present work is to operate the engine with pongamia oil and their blends with diesel, the tests were conducted in three stages. The different stages are described below.
In the first part of the experiment, the physical properties of pongamia oil, which are of interest, for IC Engine fuels are determined. The Viscosity of the oil is measured with Red Wood viscometer. The flash and fire points are measured with open cup apparatus.
CONCLUSION:
The inherent properties of the pongamia oil make them suitable for use in diesel engine. The present study establishes the case that pure pongamia oil and their blends with diesel could be used in diesel engines without any problem.
In normal operation, the engine could give slightly less brake thermal efficiency with pure pongamia oil compared to pure diesel. The blending of 20% mixture of pongamia oil with diesel gave better performance than the other mixing ratios without preheating.
At room temperature, the oil and diesel will not mix properly, but the oil will mix properly, when heated. The pure pongamia oil preheated at 50°C gives maximum brake thermal efficiency (27.14kw) compared to pure diesel (26 kW), at maximum load condition.