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Author: search.filters.author.Ashok Babu, T.P.A.Subject: search.filters.subject.Alternative fuels

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    Synthesis of biodiesel from edible and non-edible oils and characterisation
    (2009) Kapilan, N.; Ashok Babu, T.P.A.; Varun, J.D.
    In recent years, biodiesel has been receiving increasing attention because of scarcity and increasing cost of fossil fuels and growing emissions of combustion related pollutants. In the present work, biodiesel was synthesised via the transesterification of edible and non-edible oils such as gingili and mahua, with methanol as alcohol and sodium hydroxide as catalyst. The yield percentage obtained from non-edible mahua oil was comparable to that obtained from edible gingili oil, under optimum conditions. According to American Society of Testing and Methods (ASTM), several tests were conducted to characterise the biodiesel in relation to diesel oil, in order to evaluate various physical, chemical and thermal properties such as viscosity, acid value, iodine value, flash point, fire point and calorific value. From the results, it was observed that the fuel properties of biodiesel produced from mahua oil and gingili oil were within the recommended standards of biodiesel fuel of various countries. Hence the biodiesel produced from gingili oil and mahua oil can be used as a renewable alternative fuel for the diesel engine. © 2009 Energy Institute.
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    Effect of using Mahua as an alternative fuel in diesel engine
    (2009) Kapilan, N.; Ashok Babu, T.P.A.; Reddy, R.P.
    There is an increasing interest in India, to search for suitable alternative fuels that are environment friendly. This led to the choice of non-edible Mahua Oil (MO) as one of the main alternative fuels to diesel oil in India. The objective of the present work is to use MO as a partial renewable alternative substitute for diesel in the agricultural diesel engine. Since the viscosity of the MO is high, it was blended with conventional diesel oil in various proportions (M5, M10, M15 and M20 on volume basis) and fuel properties of the blends were determined and compared with the diesel. Engine tests were carried out on a single cylinder diesel engine at varying loads (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%), without making any modification in the fuel injection system and the results were compared with the diesel. The M5 and M10 blends resulted in performance and emission characteristics comparable to diesel operation and also emits lower carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and smoke emissions as compared to other blends. From the analysis, it is concluded that the MO can be partially substituted for diesel oil in the diesel engine, without making any modification in the hardware of the engine.
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    Performance characteristics of a dual fuel engine operatedwith mahua biodiesel and liquefied petroleum gas
    (2011) Kapilan, N.; Ashok Babu, T.P.A.; Reddy, R.P.
    Fuel crisis because of dramatic increase in vehicular population and environmental concerns have renewed the interest of the scientific community to look for alternative fuels of bio-origin such as vegetable oils and ethanol. India is looking at biodiesel derived from Mahua oil (MO), as one of the renewable alternative fuels for compression ignition (CI) engine. Although MO biodiesel (MOB) has several advantages over fossil diesel, in the present scenario, the use of biodiesel is restricted due to its high cost. In India, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is easily available and is one of the cheapest gaseous fuels. Hence, use of LPG to fuel a CI engine along with MOB seems to be an option for substitution of fossil diesel. In the present work, LPG, which was fumigated along with the air and biodiesel was admitted into the engine cylinder through conventional fueling device as an igniter. A single cylinder CI engine was modified to work in dual fuel mode and engine tests were carried out at rated speed under variable load conditions. The performance of the engine in dual fuel mode was compared with the diesel. The dual fuel operation results in thermal efficiency close to the diesel and also reduces the NOx and smoke emissions significantly. From the experimental results, we concluded that biodiesel in dual fuel mode with cheaper gaseous fuel induction is an option for reducing the operating cost of the biodiesel fuelled CI engine. Copyright © 2011 by ASTM International.